Teens Find a Place of Refuge at Operation Safe House

Adriana says she looks a lot like a man she doesn’t know: her father. For that, she says, she pays a price.

“My mom hits me all the time,” the 14-year-old says. “She hates my father, and I look just like him. I’m a reminder.”

Adriana, who is being identified only by her first name, says her relationship with her mother has recently deteriorated to new lows. When she ran away from home, she landed at a friend’s house and in a world that she says many runaways face, one of cigarettes, pot, vodka, total chaos.

Earlier this month, police officers picked her up and took her to a place they rely on: Operation Safe House, a 17-bed shelter and school for runaway and homeless teens in Riverside.

“I feel a lot safer here,” Adriana said. “I have a chance to get away from the pressure.”

Operation Safe House, now in its 12th year, is being featured as part of this year’s Los Angeles Times Holiday Campaign. Agencies helped by the annual campaign provide services to disadvantaged children and youths such as food, clothing, shelter, childhood literacy programs, services for developmentally delayed and disabled children, and programs on preventing violence, drug abuse and teen pregnancy.

The nonprofit agency, the only shelter of its kind in Riverside County, received $10,000 from last year’s campaign. Serving teens ages 12 to 18, Operation Safe House is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, serving more than 600 youths annually. And it operates a school.

Social workers and therapists try to resolve problems between parents and children, and typically attempt to reunite the two sides within two weeks. Some children, unable to return home because of abuse or other problems, are placed in the care of another relative or moved to a foster home.

The organization operates on a $650,000 annual budget, said Executive Director Kathy McAdara, about 80% of it from federal and county grants. The rest comes from private donations.

“These are kids who feel that they have no other option than to take to the streets,” McAdara said. “We like nothing better than to get everybody back home together. That’s what we strive for. It doesn’t always work. But we try.”

More than half the teens are brought to the shelter by police.

“The only alternative for the kid a lot of times is to run away,” said Valerie Hill, president of the organization’s board and a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department division chief. “Here is a place for them to go that is safe.”

Kristen, 16, another temporary resident, said she turned to the streets after running away from an abusive father. “I wasn’t making good decisions,” she said. “I knew I needed to turn my life around. So here I am.”

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