Shelter to Get $300,000 for Services to Children

The Huntington Youth Shelter, which helps runaway and abused children, will receive more than $300,000 in federal funds to support its services, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) announced Tuesday.

The Health and Human Services grant will provide $105,000 annually for three years.

“One hundred and five thousand of our tax dollars are being returned to us today,” said Rohrabacher, flanked by center employees, volunteers and board members.

The money will benefit direct services, including shelter, counseling, drug intervention and outreach programs.

The shelter also hopes to survey street youths living between the unincorporated community of Surfside near Seal Beach and Balboa Island in Newport Beach.

“It’s really to assess their needs,” said Karyl Winslow, shelter director.

“If possible, we’ll get some of them into the shelter.”

The federal money, which arrives Sept. 30, will augment private donations.

The center is not receiving other public financing this fiscal year, Winslow said.

Huntington Youth Shelter opened in a converted 1920s-era house on Talbert Avenue near the Huntington Central Library in 1994 and can serve as many as 10 children at any giventime.

The average stay is eight days; the maximum two weeks. Children range in age from 11 to 17.

Homeless children, typically runaways, drug addicts and abuse victims, come to the shelter from throughout Orange County.

Some are originally from other parts of the state and country.