Shelter says $200,000 is missing

A Los Alamitos youth shelter providing temporary housing for at-risk teens will not reduce its services despite the loss of more than $200,000 that the director says was embezzled, officials with the nonprofit agency said Tuesday.

Although the missing money constitutes a major portion of Casa Youth Shelter’s $900,000 annual budget, said Luciann Maulhardt, executive director of the 12-bed facility, “not one shelter bed will not be provided to a youth. No service will be reduced.”

Maulhardt said an employee was fired immediately after the money was found to be missing within the past week. She said she had discovered that someone had stolen her identity. Maulhardt said her name was forged on shelter checks and unauthorized items were charged to her credit cards.

The matter was turned over to police on Monday.

A spokesman for the Los Alamitos Police Department would provide no further details, saying that the investigation had just begun.

The nonprofit agency, which officials say has counseled and sheltered more than 10,000 runaways and youths in crisis and worked with 38,000 family members in its 30-year history, is one of only two of its kind in Orange County.

As news of the theft spread, some supporters expressed dismay.

The youth shelter “is for children who have nowhere else to go,” said Simon Lee, whose wife, Teresa, sits on its board. “Our hearts go out to them. We’ve been supporting them for years.”

Lee’s 5-year-old son, Austin, recently raised $430 for Casa Youth Shelter with a birthday-party fundraiser. “When I told him the bad news he had tears in his eyes,” Lee said. “We were so disappointed.”

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