ENDING OF MEALS TO SINGLES IN D.C. SHELTERS IS UPHELD

The District government, citing budgetary constraints, stopped serving meals last week in city-run shelters for single homeless people, and advocates for the homeless failed yesterday to obtain a court order requiring the meals to resume.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Harriett R. Taylor, who has ordered the city to make wide-ranging improvements in its shelters for the homeless, ruled yesterday that food service is beyond the scope of Initiative 17, a requirement approved by D.C. voters that the city provide shelter for anyone who needs it. Her ruling does not prevent advocates for the homeless from pursuing their case under other laws.

Mitch Snyder, whose Community for Creative Non-Violence has led the legal fight against the city, argued that the withholding of meals was a tactic to make city shelters "as uninviting as possible . . . because if more people come inside they've got to open more shelters, and they'd rather not do that."

Rae Parr-Moore, a city spokeswoman, said the decision, which does not affect homeless families, was "part of our deficit reduction plan."

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