The charity question

Many, including a majority of the Costa Mesa City Council, don't see social services as a function of government. Some organizations rely on government grants for help but are discouraged by what they perceive as a hostile procedure.For some Costa Mesa charities, the process of asking the city for federal grants has come to feel like stepping up to the chopping block, and it's nearly time for them to face the ax again.

Every year, Costa Mesa doles out up to a quarter of a million dollars to social service organizations that serve the city's residents. A committee vets the grant applications and makes suggestions to the City Council, which can accept them or change them.

The City Council gives out all the available grants, but the majority on the council has expressed a belief that social services are best handled in the private sector and are not the function of government.

In the last several years, some organizations have stopped bothering to apply for the grants. It's not just the volume of paperwork that's required for a relatively small grant -- officials with some charities say they're tired of feeling punished when asking for money.

"The whole idea was to help people, and unfortunately in recent years the process has really been politicized," said Jean Forbath, who founded Share Our Selves and is still on its board of directors.

The organization offers free medical and dental care and other services to Orange County's poorer residents.

"The agencies are completely disillusioned, and I wouldn't be surprised if more agencies don't drop out," Forbath said.

The grants in question, called community development block grants, are federal money the city is required to spend to benefit low- to moderate-income residents. They're the string attached to money the city gets for public projects and the like.

This year Costa Mesa will receive about $200,000 for lower-income residents. The city gives the money to nonprofit groups rather than setting up its own programs to use the money, City Manager Allan Roeder said.

Roeder said applications for the federal grants always exceed the amount of money available, but the number of applicants has dropped significantly over the last several years.

"We have decided not to go after the funding primarily because we are not happy with the process that organizations are put through to request the funding," said Veronica Escobedo, program director for Girls Inc.

The agency hasn't applied for about three years.