Rehabilitation Program Launched : For Young Prostitutes, a Chance to Start Lives Anew

In a nondescript two-story, white stucco house on 70th Street, girls who have worked as prostitutes in San Diego will be taught independent living skills in an attempt to change their lives.

The house is the beginning of an extensive program, launched by the St. Vincent De Paul Center, to give the city’s teen-age prostitutes a chance to start over.

The home, which will offer medical services, extensive counseling, and education, is the city’s first residential shelter for runaway girls who have been working as prostitutes, said Mary Case, the program director at St. Vincent De Paul.

“We are looking for kids who are committed to a change, who really want out,” Case said at the home’s open house Wednesday. “This will be an alternative to the street.”

The idea for the home came from similar programs in Seattle and San Francisco, Case said.

“Teen-age prostitution is still a soft problem in San Diego,” Case said. “But these kids have a real need for treatment and a safe place to be.”

Among the more than 3,500 runaways picked up by police in San Diego last year, 11 of them were arrested for prostitution, said San Diego Police Sgt. Greg Drilling, head of the missing juvenile division.

“This program is long overdue,” Drilling said. “The number of runaways involved in prostitution is not increasing, but if there’s one (teen-age prostitute), there’s a problem.”

Kathie Wurzbacher, clinical director of the Orion Center in Seattle, said that of the 30 child prostitutes that the co-ed center has helped in the last 2 1/2 years, 10 of them and are no longer on the street. The others have either dropped out of sight or are still in treatment.

“We have found that the process of getting them out of prostitution will take an average of four years,” Wurzbacher said.

Designed to house six girls at a time, the San Diego program will allow clients to stay for one to 90 days, depending on their needs, Case said. She said the home hopes to place the girls in foster homes after their stay.

The doors of the home will open within 30 days.

Operating solely from donations and money from private fund raising, the project has received $30,000 toward its $110,000 annual budget, said the Rev. Joseph Carroll, an organizer of the effort. The home, donated for use by Bob Hartson, former owner of Hartson’s Ambulance, has been named the Hartson House.

Girls, ages 12 to 17, may be referred to the Hartson House by agencies working with the St. Vincent De Paul Center, Carroll said.

The charity will also establish a storefront outreach in downtown San Diego in July, Carroll said, and social workers will contact the girls on the streets.