BURBANK SOCIAL SERVICE AGENCY FACES DEEP SPENDING CUTS.

Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer

The Burbank Temporary Aid Center has been forced to sharply curtail services and spending because of grant cuts and a drop in donations, an official said.

Cherie Combs, executive director of BTAC, said Monday that the agency is no longer providing housing vouchers for single people without children, has cut back on the amount of food it gives out to clients, and can no longer afford to help people replace lost birth certificates and driver's licenses, which many need to get a job.

``People are being more conservative in their donations,'' Combs said. ``Our donations are down by a third.''

The center, which opened in 1974, is dipping into its financial reserves. Combs received more bad news last week when the City Council decided it would cut the center's grant by more than half, from $38,000 to $15,000 in the 1996-97 fiscal year.

``We didn't dream it would be this much of a cut,'' Combs said.

Even so, Combs said she was grateful because the Burbank Temporary Aid Center, one of the city's best-known social service agencies, did better than most.

For example, the Burbank Family Service Agency will likely have to drop its counseling program for the elderly because its $26,955 grant was cut back to $1,000 for coming year. The YMCA got $10,000 this year, but just $2,000 for next year. The Burbank Boys and Girls Club received $2,500 this year, but will not get a community block grant at all next year.

Burbank City Manager Robert ``Bud'' Ovrom said the federal money for the city's Community Development Block Grant funding was cut by 56 percent this year.

``This was a cold turkey, 56 percent cut in one year,'' Ovrom said.

Ovrom said slashing grants to agencies like the Burbank Temporary Aid Center could cause more of a drain on the city.

``If you have to cut money to BTAC and BTAC helps the homeless, you're going to end up having more homeless in your parks,'' Ovrom said. ``If you cut the jobs for youth program, you're probably going to see a jump in juvenile crime. This is where these problems come home to roost.''

The nonprofit groups competed against some city and school district programs for the $95,400 in grants available for public service programs. This was down from the $229,000 available in the current fiscal year.

Two of the biggest public service grants went to the Department of Parks and Recreation Department and the Burbank Unified School District. A supervised recreation program for low-income children at McKinley and Providencia elementary schools received $15,000, and a school district youth employment program received $37,500.