Report Shows City's Funding Will Decrease

Social services in Cambridge will be drastically cut back under President Nixon's proposed Better Communities Bill, according to the preliminary findings of a survey of Cambridge's federally funded agencies.

The survey, which is being conducted by the Cambridge Model Cities Administration, projects the loss of $1.75 million of the $3.3 million received under the grant-in-aids program last year and the dismissal of 103 of the 244 people currently employed in Cambridge's federally funded education programs.

The figures are based on reports from 75 per cent of the agencies in the educational sector.

Corresponding Cutbacks

Statistics are not currently available for Cambridge's other social service agencies, but a spokesman for the City said yesterday that he is "quite sure" the results in areas such as housing and health will correspond to the education figures.

One of the agencies that will be especially hard-hit by Nixon's bill is the Model Cities Administration, which since its initiation four years ago has led the New England region in Federal Model Cities grants.

When the $2.3 billion Better Communities Bill was filed last week, James T. Lynn, secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said that no community would receive less money under the act than it had been receiving under the previous categorical grant program.

A spokesman for the City, however, challenged Lynn's statement.

No More Piggyback

"Under HUD's formula the block grant will be equivalent to the initial categorical grant received by the City agency in the past," the spokesman said yesterday. "But this formula does not make any provision for the secondary 'Piggyback' grants that agencies have been so dependent on."

As an example, the spokesman cited the Model Cities Community Learning Program, which began with an initial grant of $75,000 and gained an additional $250,000 when administrators solicited "piggyback funds."

Under the formula for the Better Communities Act the City would be guaranteed the $75,000, but no compensation will be made for the quarter of a million in HEW "piggyback funds," the spokesman said.

The full report will be completed and ready for review by the City Council within the next three weeks.