An Olympic-sized drain on corporate foundations and non-profits will ?starve city anti-poverty services? because the money is being siphoned off for use in getting the Games in 2016, a coalition of 17 social service organizations charged today. He named Mayor Daley and Patrick G. Ryan of Aon as responsible for a plan to divert funds for costs estimated to reach $5 billion including $1.1 billion needed to build a lakeside Olympic Village.

Reverend Abbott Washburn, who has been recently named head of CONSERVE [City on Notice to Save Resources Victimized by Encroachment] said that private and independent sector support for charities are ?being jeopardized by big government in tandem with corporations so as to spend these funds on infrastructure that helps big business rather than the poor for whom they are intended.?

Washburn, a new face in city activism, told a news conference today, ?there is approximately $750 million from corporate foundations and donations which otherwise would be expended for the poor that is now being diverted in order to bankroll Mayor Daley?s Olympic dream which may never come to pass. The money could well be sidetracked from the poor to help enlarge a $60 million breakwater at Monroe Harbor to build a 2-mile course for rowing events, to build a temporary 80,000-seat track stadium adjacent to Soldier Field and having the two stadiums host dual opening and closing ceremonies? for the Games.