Shelter From the Streets : Huntington facility offers welcome help for homeless teens

Huntington Beach prides itself on the nickname “Surf City,” and its attractions of ocean, beaches and an active night life are lures for many, especially the young.

But some of the teenagers flocking to the roller-skating park near the Civic Center and to coffeehouses downtown are runaways, boys and girls who often are especially vulnerable to the dark side of city life.

Three years ago, volunteers in Huntington Beach opened a shelter for homeless teens, including runaways. Several months ago, the Volunteers of America organization began operating the shelter. It’s a welcome asset.

To increase the impact, shelter workers are using a $315,000 federal grant to search the city for youngsters who might need a respite from the streets, with its dangers of crime, drugs and prostitution. The shelter has only 10 beds, but they can provide a relief from makeshift living quarters in abandoned houses or alleys.

One recent tenant of the shelter was a pregnant 16-year-old. Her boyfriend left; her mother lost the job she had held for 13 years and wound up homeless herself; her estranged father stopped paying child support.

The unexpected loss of a job can plunge many adults into homelessness. The county has a homeless population estimated at 12,000 to 15,000. It also has far too few beds for the homeless.

The Huntington Youth Shelter’s workers understand teens’ wariness of adults and the feeling of commonality engendered by sharing quarters in a boarded-up building. But the outreach workers also realize that some teens will seek help if they know it’s available. The shelter offers counseling in an effort to get clients off the streets.

So the workers patrol the areas where teens congregate: coffeehouses, skating parks, surf shops. Circulars are dropped off, giving the shelter’s phone number and address. In face-to-face meetings, there’s no pressure, just a rundown for youngsters of what the shelter has to offer.

That low-key approach and refusal to judge the teens has helped attract tenants. It’s important work and can give youngsters a chance to think about the future and perhaps get some of the help they need to make a fresh start.