Founded by Convicted Felon : Youth Shelter Is Under Investigation

Young Active People, a Gaslamp Quarter shelter for homeless youth founded by a convicted felon only weeks after he left jail, is under investigation for operating illegally by state and city agencies and may be forced to close.

In addition, the shelter’s landlord has gone to court to have YAP and its founder, Nathaniel G. Jones, evicted for failing to pay rent on the two-story facility at 520 6th Ave.

Jones, who was convicted of attempted car theft last year and served seven months of his one-year sentence before being released, was also recently slapped with a restraining order after officials of a downtown social service agency accused him of threatening their employees. He also, apparently, has exaggerated his ties to civic leaders in San Diego and the Midwest and made groundless claims of support from a church and a private foundation.

According to Jones, 24, a lanky Army veteran, YAP is the fulfillment of a dream he has nursed since he was a teen-ager in St. Louis, working with other youngsters in poverty programs.

Fewer than 10 people live at the shelter, besides himself, Jones said--people he finds on the streets and offers a room and food, Bible study, help finding work and a path to self-discipline and self-respect.

“It’s about time such a program has come, a program designed both to shelter and to solve the problems and turmoils of society’s youth,” Jones says in publicity materials describing YAP.

But Jones’ sudden transformation from jail inmate to YAP “chief director” has generated a residue of inquiries and accusations.

The licensing division of the state Department of Social Services has issued a notice that YAP is operating illegally, according to Tom Hersant, a supervisor in the division’s San Diego office. The notice means YAP must apply for a state license or close, Hersant said.

State regulations for operating a community care facility bar convicted felons from holding a license without special permission from the Social Service Department director. Court records say Jones pleaded guilty to a felony charge of attempted auto theft and was sentenced to a year in jail July 30 by El Cajon Municipal Court Judge Elizabeth Riggs. He was released from the County Jail March 3.

City planning officials, acting on information that YAP was operating without city approval, visited the shelter Thursday. Ron Smith, the city’s Gaslamp Quarter project director, said the city will determine that YAP is not permitted to operate at its current location or order the shelter to obtain permits it now is lacking.

Jones’ probation officer, Virginia White, said she warned him about two weeks ago that he could not open a shelter without authorization.

“I’ve cautioned him about it,” she said Thursday. “I have worked in this job for 20 years, and you don’t just run out and establish a home for runaways, because it’s not legal.”

White said she planned to pay a visit to YAP. “I guess I wasn’t thinking of it so seriously as I probably should have,” she said.

Nonetheless, Jones said this week that he understood that he could legally operate the shelter without licenses or permits as long as he did not provide counseling or supervision to juveniles. He said he considers the 9,000-square-foot building his residence, and that others at the shelter are simply his guests, free to come and go.

“I’m not presently open for business,” Jones said.

Yet he also described a program for YAP residents that includes morning calisthenics, group meetings and Bible study. And residents of the shelter said in interviews Thursday that they were receiving counseling.

“He’s trying to rehabilitate me and make me observe discipline,” said Cliff Edwards Jr., 17, of San Diego. “He’s a pretty relentless guy.”

Jones’ landlord, Robert Osterberg, filed a complaint May 5 in San Diego County Superior Court seeking YAP’s eviction because Jones has not made any of the payments required by the lease-to-own agreement he signed April 3.

Jones said Thursday that he has refused to make the $5,400-per-month payments because the building is infested with bugs and rats.

“It’s really dangerous for children to stay here,” Jones said, opening his desk drawer to pull out a plastic baby bottle filled with two-inch-long cockroaches that he plans to use as evidence in court. He said he had to ask a woman and her infant to leave the shelter after they were bitten one night.

The Community Connection, a nonprofit agency that provides emergency services to ex-offenders, has obtained a temporary restraining order from the Superior Court barring Jones from its offices at 1140 Union St.

In its court filing, the agency says Jones repeatedly has threatened to assault its employees. Police records say San Diego police officers arrested Jones at the agency’s office May 7 and charged him with trespassing.

About five weeks earlier, Community Connection had been providing emergency housing for Jones at a downtown hotel. According to the agency’s court filing, the assistance was terminated March 27, after Jones attacked and injured another hotel resident.

Jones conceded Thursday that he kicked another hotel resident in the face, but he said the other man was drunk and instigated the fight. He said he plans to file his own suit against Community Connection, claiming that the organization has stolen his plan to establish a 24-hour hot line for troubled youths. The agency denies that allegation.

Jones’ efforts to raise money for YAP also have raised questions.

Elizabeth Benes, attorney for the Joan B. Kroc Foundation, said she asked the San Diego city attorney’s office to investigate YAP after the foundation turned down its request for funding.

Assistant City Atty. Steve Norton said this week that he could not comment on the investigation, except to say that no allegations of wrongdoing had been referred to prosecutors.

Jones said Thursday that most of his funding requests--to numerous private foundations, city agencies, even the Chamber of Commerce--have gone unanswered. He said he is running short of personal funds to keep YAP open, but expects to get a $1-million bank loan backed by the La Jolla-based Copley Foundation.

However, a Copley Foundation spokesman said Thursday that Jones had been told he needs to obtain tax-exempt status for YAP before his application for funds can even be considered.

Jones also appears to have exaggerated his ties to other groups and prominent people.

Asked in an interview this week if YAP had a professional staff, Jones said that George Penn, an assistant to San Diego City Manager Sylvester Murray, “has just started working with the program.”

But Penn said Thursday that his only contact with Jones was a meeting about a week ago, when he gave Jones some advice on how to seek funding and other assistance for YAP.

“As far as his present operations or what he’s doing now, I’m not aware of them,” Penn said.

Jones also claimed that the Mission Church, a nondenominational San Diego congregation, had offered to provide him a place to continue YAP’s operations if he is forced to vacate the Gaslamp Quarter building.

But Paul Lethin, a member of the church who has met with Jones, said he has only invited YAP’s residents to attend services with the congregation and offered to conduct Bible study at the shelter.

“We’re not involved in his organization in any way,” Lethin said.

Soon after they met, Lethin said, Jones called to tell him that he was opening a youth center and that the Rev. Jesse Jackson was going to dedicate the facility.

“I saw on the news that night that Jesse was in town,” Lethin said. “I thought this must be legit.”

But Jones later told Lethin that Jackson had been too busy during his visit to come to YAP, Lethin said.

Jones also invited Betty Thompson, a St. Louis area civic leader, to participate in a YAP seminar where Jackson supposedly would be on the panel, Thompson said in an interview Thursday.

Jones said only that he has applied for funding from the Rainbow Coalition, Jackson’s political organization.

Thompson--national president of Women in Municipal Government and a City Council member in University City, Mo., a St. Louis suburb--said she knew Jones when he worked with a St. Louis youth program in the early 1970s. He received a community service award from the program in 1973, she said.

But Thompson said she was unaware that Jones had recently been jailed, adding that she needed to know more about his new program before lending her name to it.

“When they get away, I have no way of knowing what they’re doing and what they’re into,” she said.

But she added, “I believe he’s a person who’s got all the intentions of doing what’s right.”

Another person Jones lists as a St. Louis reference, St. Louis Police Capt. Gay Caraway, said this week that he has only faint memories of Jones.

“I’m not sure this is the same kid I have a mental image of, but it sounds like the same kid who always had some grandiose plan for saving the world,” Caraway said.

Jones says the YAP shelter is only the beginning of his plans for making a mark in San Diego. He hopes to open for-profit businesses as well, including a security agency, a janitorial service and a day-care center.

And he is confident that he will meet his goals.

“I’ve talked to several people (who) told me they don’t like newcomers coming in and starting an operation in San Diego,” he said. “This is one new operation that’s going to succeed, because I see the greatest need.”