The troubles of the nation's largest community organizing organization, ACORN, are being felt in the liberal Bay Area, where there is normally no shortage of supporters of the group's efforts to provide free tax help and other services to low-income residents and people of color.

Amid allegations that employees of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now participated in voter registration fraud and, most recently, gave business advice to undercover filmmakers posing as a pimp and prostitute, Bay Area agencies that had supported the group have cut off tens of thousands of dollars of funding.

ACORN's problems accelerated in September after widespread media coverage of the secretly recorded videos at the group's offices in Southern California and elsewhere. Republicans and Democrats in Congress voted to cut federal funding for the organization. The group has filed suit in federal court to reinstate the funding.

Six days later, the Internal Revenue Service said ACORN no longer would be included in its list of organizations allowed to provide free tax preparation. While the organization is mostly funded by private donations and $10-a-month dues from its 400,000 members, the organization has received $53 million in federal funds since 1994.

In light of the videos recorded by conservative activists, Attorney General Jerry Brown launched an investigation into the actions of two Southern California ACORN offices - and of the clandestine filmmakers. State law prohibits recording someone without their consent.

There has been no evidence that allegations of voter registration fraud against employees of the organization resulted in fraudulent ballots being cast. And ACORN officials themselves alerted authorities to some allegations of voter registration fraud last year when some employees were accused of submitting false registration forms.

Voter registration was only part of the organization's California work, which also has included efforts to raise minimum wages and fight predatory lending practices. The group has helped residents get speed bumps and stop signs in San Bruno and clean up of lead paint in East Oakland apartments.

Bay Area staff cut

The loss of local funding means ACORN has had to cut nearly two-thirds of its 26-person staff in the Bay Area since September. Officials at the organization say they were forced to discontinue a program focused on helping homeowners modify loans in anticipation of a new wave of home foreclosures next year.

"Our core work of organizing will continue and the fact that we've been around the Bay Area for (20) years means that we've built some strong relationships," said John Eller, ACORN's Bay Area regional director and lead organizer.

Although other organizations will try to help thousands of Bay Area families facing foreclosure in the next few months, he said, "it will be a heavy lift for a lot of them."

San Francisco's Human Services Agency ended its relationship with the group two months ago because the IRS was no longer recognizing it as a certified free tax preparer.

The city had paid San Francisco's ACORN office $75,000 to help low-income people prepare taxes. In the past year, ACORN and the agency helped 3,022 San Franciscans collect $1.3 million in earned income tax credit refunds.

"They did a good job," said Trent Rhorer, executive director of the Human Services Agency. "They helped us reach people we couldn't reach." While he was confident the group's work would be picked up by another local agency, he said "their asset is their experience."

Also in September, the United Way of the Bay Area declared a moratorium on grants made to ACORN.

"We have the public trust of our donors and we want to make sure that we're distributing their money to organizations that have the public trust," said Carole Watson, chief community investment officer for United Way of the Bay Area.

The charity awarded $44,000 to Bay Area ACORN affiliates to help low-income people with tax preparation during the 2008-09 tax season. It also had donated $40,000 to ACORN San Mateo's foreclosure prevention program.

ACORN was one of 250 organizations giving free tax advice that resulted in $47 million in refunds to 47,000 low-income Bay Area tax filers in the past year, United Way officials said.

Watson said her organization had received no complaints about ACORN. "They were highly regarded for their performance," she said.

The group's tax preparation program helped Modesta Arias. In the past, the 70-year-old Excelsior district resident had gone to for-profit tax preparers in the Mission District "but they try to take advantage of Latin people who speak Spanish," she said.

She has been so grateful for ACORN's help that she has volunteered twice a month to go door-to-door in her neighborhood to help organize residents on housing and crime issues.

Support in S.F.

The San Francisco Foundation is standing behind the group.

"To date, they have met our rigorous and standardized grant eligibility requirements, as well as operated and served with mission and values aligned with those of the San Francisco Foundation," spokeswoman Sara Ying Rounsaville said.

The foundation gave $72,000 to Bay Area ACORN affiliates this year.