E-mail From The Floor

Subject: The Politics Of Leftovers

Republicans may not be crazy about welfare cheats and illegal aliens, but the homeless people in San Diego are enjoying the party's largesse this week, thanks, in part, to Jack Kemp. One thousand of the city's homeless will dine this week on mushroom pate, shrimp sausage, spicy Thai salad, leg of lamb and Wolfgang Puck's pizza -- all leftovers from the huge media and fireworks bash that launched festivities for the party convention Saturday night.

Shortly after the last fireworks exploded over the harbor, trucks loaded with a cornucopia of exotic southern California dishes began pulling up to the nearby St. Vincent de Paul Village in downtown San Diego, leaving the kitchen staff wondering how to parcel out the dainty delicacies to a group of hungry folks more accustomed to meatloaf and spaghetti.

Everything will be served up over the next couple of days except for the liquor-laced desserts, which, alas, were tossed out. "The residents will be singing the Republicans' praises tonight," chortled Father Joe Carroll, the chubby and cheerful head of a facility that houses, feeds and counsels some 2,000 homeless a day.

It won't be the first time. St. Vincent de Paul is a success, in part, because Jack Kemp visited the center when he was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under George Bush. Impressed with the clean, efficient and largely privately funded facility, Kemp got the federal government to kick in some help. Today less than 25 percent of the facility's $11 million budget comes from federal funds, and St. Vincent is a national model -- one that has testimonials from Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Jack Kemp.

Even though the Republicans didn't pay for the food going to St. Vincent (the Copley newspaper family and local restaurants donated it), the party leftovers have made the Republicans more than a few friends at the shelter, a number of them immigrants. Kemp, after all, opposed California's anti-immigration Prop. 187 referendum, much to the disgust of the party's right-wingers. "Kemp's nomination means the Republicans have opened up the back door again to the poor," says Father Joe. "Even if they don't win, it means there is somebody in the upper reaches of the party listening to the side of the poor."

So excited is Father Joe by the turn of events, in fact, that when Kemp got the nod as Bob Dole's vice presidential choice on Saturday, the priest pulled down a picture of Kemp in the shelter's lobby -- a picture taken during a Kemp visit to the facility when he was HUD secretary -- and had it enlarged. Now visitors won't be able to miss the huge mug of Jack Kemp on the their wall, along with the photo of another apparent admirer -- Bob Dole, also posing with Father Joe. It, too, is being enlarged. "Dole's probably wondering when he posed with me, but I promise it's a real picture," says the priest with a booming laugh.

That picture of Dole and Father Joe also figures prominently in a huge half-page ad in Sunday's San Diego Union-Tribune, inviting Republican Party delegates to taste the delights of the city: "70 miles of coastline. 82 gold courses. Jumping whales and Spanish dancers. St. Vincent de Paul Village. Don't save the best for last! Tour the facility that your leaders are talking about..." Father Joe even offers VIP pickup for conventioneers at their hotels.

So far there have been no takers --the delegates are, after all, just arriving -- but Father Joe thinks if he can just get a few of those delegates over, half his battle will be won. "Not too many shelters take out ads, eh?" he says.. "But we believe that the only way to change people's hearts and minds is to let them see it works."

And how it works: Over 75 percent of the "village" (Father Joe doesn't like the word "shelter") is privately funded. Volunteers provide many of the services: the Jewish community provides Sunday brunch; Vietnam vets provide some counseling; biker groups raise funds; some 300 doctors volunteer in the clinic, and 40 dentists rotate shifts doing dentures so the homeless can look better for job interviews. There's an eye clinic with donated glasses; a job center, a working computer workshop; counseling services for drug and alcohol abuse; remedial reading classes and even a Tai Chi class. The result is a 60 percent success rate in rehabilitating single men and single women, and an 80 percent rate for families. Which is why George Bush made St. Vincent Point of Light #42.

Sunday night, in the dinner line at St. Vincent, there were some raised eyebrows at the highbrow fare: leg of lamb and leg of pork. "No beans?" marveled Dawn, a resident for two years with her husband, Casey, and baby boy, Zachary. When the residents found out they were eating leftovers from the Republican convention, they enjoyed the sweet justice of it. "We're eating good tonight and usually we don't. You could call it 'trickle-down' theory," laughed Bruce, who lives in the village with his two kids.

Unfortunately for the Republicans, the generosity doesn't seem to have won them many votes among those on the food line. But Father Joe is hedging his bets anyway, should the Democrats win in November. He's got a picture of himself with Jimmy Carter, which could be enlarged at a moment's notice. "But don't tell the Republicans that," he says with a laugh. "For now, I'm keeping it in the back where the Republicans don't come."