Shelter abandoned

Dave Brooks

For years the Huntington Beach Youth Shelter served Surf City’s

neediest children, providing a brief place to stay for kids whose own

homes weren’t safe.

Today the shelter sits empty, abandoned by the organization that

had been charged with managing the facility for the past eight years.

At the City Council’s upcoming Feb. 22 meeting, City Atty. Jennifer

McGrath will be asking the council to end its contract with

Volunteers of America, and possibly begin looking for a new group to

manage the facility. From there, Volunteers of America will have 30

days to vacate the premises.

Community Services Director Jim Engle said his office received

word several weeks ago that the shelter had stopped accepting young

people. At the time, only one Volunteers of America staff member was

occupying the house with a maintenance worker, Engle said, and the

pair were only giving out referrals, not accepting youth.

“They were basically empty,” he said. “They weren’t operating as a

shelter and that is what their contract requires.”

After the council cancels Volunteer’s contract, the national

faith-based nonprofit will have 30 days to vacate the facility. Most

of the furniture from the building has been moved out, despite

protests from several city officials. There’s also a dispute about

who owns the dozens of snowflake decorations used to light the city’s

Pier Plaza during the holiday season. For years, Volunteers stored

the lights at the Youth Shelter and sold individual sponsorships of

each snowflake light as a way to raise money.

Several officials from the Volunteers of America did not return

multiple phone calls, but Engle said an official with the

organization told him the group had recently lost a large federal

grant and had to scale back the operation. According to a 1997 memo

on the shelter written by director Karyl Winslow, the facility was

receiving at least $85,000 a year from the national Runaway and

Homeless Youth Act.

“The funding is based on congressional intent to target

‘pre-system’ kids and matches the original intent of the shelter

mission,” she wrote.

The Huntington Beach Youth Shelter was created in 1989 by a

citizens group that had promoted the project for years as a way to

house Huntington Beach’s population of homeless children. The

facility was used for runaway children who needed a few days away

from their homes, as well as victims of child neglect, abuse or whose

parents were being processed through the criminal justice system.

The City Council allowed the shelter to occupy the former Brooks

House, in Central Park near the Main Library on a 20-year lease for

$10 a year.

The Youth Shelter’s own foundation would be responsible for

raising the money to operate the facility.

The shelter ran into difficulties a few years later when it agreed

to provide long-term foster care facilities to Orange County. The

shelter was not equipped with the staff or resources to take on such

a large commitment and nearly went bankrupt.

In 1996, control of the shelter was handed over to Volunteers of

America in an attempt to bring financial expertise and stability to

the shelter. Volunteers of America continued to operate the shelter’s

crisis hotline and family counseling and mediation.

The founders of the shelter continued to raise money for the

facility, but disagreement over the mission of the shelter began to

drive a wedge between Volunteers of America and its fundraising arm.