Delegation From Mexico Visits Sylmar Juvenile Hall : Youth: County probation employees have financed several shipments of donated food, clothing and bedding for homeless youngsters in Tijuana.

The Mexican delegation that visited Sylmar Juvenile Hall on Wednesday came from Tijuana, a city that--like Los Angeles--must contend with social problems that originated elsewhere.

An economic boom in the border region has doubled Tijuana’s population to about 2 million over the past decade. But, combined with the continuing massive influx of emigrants bound for the United States, growth has also produced a small army of street children--an estimated 8,000 homeless youths from all over Mexico.

“They don’t have families, they don’t have work, they don’t have anything,” said Tijuana Mayor Carlos Montejo Favela in an interview. “Some of them are abandoned by families who leave them in Tijuana and go on to the United States.”

The plight of those children struck Los Angeles County Probation Department employees who visited Tijuana’s small, overcrowded juvenile facility earlier this year and found that homeless youths are housed there alongside criminal offenders. The facility is designed for about 200 wards, but sometimes ends up holding close to 1,000, Tijuana officials said.

The Los Angeles County representatives have taken up collections among fellow employees to finance several shipments of donated food, clothing and bedding for the Tijuana wards.

“We want to reach out and help them with their needs,” said Chief Probation Officer Barry Nidorf. “We think our resources are tight, but theirs really are.”

Montejo and other Tijuana officials visited Sylmar Juvenile Hall on Wednesday to thank officials for the aid and to further a cross-border exchange of ideas and resources.

The Tijuana municipal government is completing construction of a new youth home to be called “City of the Child,” an alternative shelter for homeless children who have not committed crimes.

“We would like to do what you have done here with this beautiful facility, with a church, a school and other things,” Montejo told Sylmar officials.

The $300,000 City of the Child will house 60 children and is seen as a pilot project for additional youth homes, said Alejandro Monraz, a Tijuana city councilman.

Wednesday’s visit reflects increasing cooperation between Los Angeles and Tijuana juvenile authorities. They are also working together on the Border Youth Project, a year-old program for youths in county custody who are illegal immigrants and have no relatives in the United States. Mexican authorities have helped identify 126 youths and returned them to their families or the Mexican juvenile system, Nidorf said.

Montejo and Tijuana Police Chief Agustin Perez Mundo were impressed by the size and sophistication of the Sylmar facility. But they do not envy Los Angeles County its violent, heavily armed, drug-using youth gangs.

“That’s something we don’t have,” Montejo said.