$175,000 Grant Will Help Agencies for Working Poor

Seven social service agencies that assist Los Angeles’ homeless and poor will share a $175,000 grant from the United Way of Greater Los Angeles and the Fannie Mae Foundation.

The grants will be awarded today at a 10 a.m. ceremony at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, 224 S. San Pedro St., Los Angeles.

The joint partnership, called Help the Homeless, provides funding directly to agencies helping the working poor to become self-sufficient, officials said.

“This grant will allow us to assist families that we would otherwise have to turn away because we wouldn’t have any other funds available,” said Erica Williams, director of programs at On Your Feet, a Sherman Oaks nonprofit organization that will receive $40,000 of the grant.

On Your Feet offers rental assistance, eviction prevention, utilities assistance, computer training classes and counseling services, among other programs, Williams said. The agency currently assists about 2,200 families in the San Fernando Valley.

Other agencies that will share in the grant include L.A. Family Housing Corp. with sites in North Hollywood and Boyle Heights; Beyond Shelter and Portals House Inc. in Koreatown; New Image Emergency Shelter in Long Beach; Ocean Park Community Center in West Los Angeles; and Little Tokyo Service Center.

“Through this partnership, we are creating a net for the working poor who are living at the brink of homelessness,” said Joe Haggerty, president of United Way of Greater Los Angeles, in a statement. “Our aim is to catch them before they fall.”

According to the United Way’s 1999 report, “Tale of Two Cities,” Los Angeles County is one of the nation’s most expensive housing markets, where almost 80% of the working poor pay more than one-third of their income on housing.