LAGUNA BEACH : Transitional Shelter for Teens Put on Hold
The city youth shelter’s goal of opening a transitional living center for teen-agers whose parents do not want them will have to wait.
The shelter had applied for a $100,000 grant but was awarded a smaller amount: $25,000, which will be used for other programs at the shelter, said Margot R. Carlson, executive director of Community Service Programs Inc.
The shelter had been seeking the larger grant from the United Parcel Service and had the promise of a matching $100,000 from the city of Laguna Beach.
“It’s certainly not going to enable us to go ahead . . . with the transitional living center,” Carlson said Tuesday. “But any time we receive $25,000 it is with great gratitude.”
The center would have been for so-called throw-away kids who have no place to go. Such youths are vulnerable to gang involvement and can be more easily enticed into criminal activities, including prostitution, social workers say.
The idea was to buy a house where six youths from 16 to 19 years old could live with a supervisor for up to six months while learning basic life skills, including how to apply for work and how to budget their income. Social workers across Orange County say that such a center is sorely needed here.
The youth shelter offers emergency housing and counseling for teen-agers and their families. The goal is to reunite young clients with their relatives.
Carlson said the $25,000 will probably be used for an outreach program that monitors reunited families.
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