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Homeless youth get a hand up

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Almost a dozen young men and women are off the street and living in homes in Hillcrest and Normal Heights through a program partially funded by the county to address a homeless population that often goes unnoticed.

Eric Lovett, a real estate broker and pastor with MissionGathering church in North Park, founded the nonprofit Urban Street Angels about one and a half years ago to serve homeless youth ages 18 to 25.

After building up the program through private donations, the nonprofit’s budget has grown from $57,000 in its first year to $420,000 this year. Of that, $200,000 comes from Behavioral Health Services, a part of the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency, it received in March.

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While there are an estimated 2,500 homeless youths in San Diego, the population has been called the “unseen homeless” who aren’t often aren’t included in counts because many may be “couch surfing” — sleeping at houses of friends and acquaintances.

They also are less likely to stay in homeless shelters, and they tend to blend in with other young people who appear to be socializing or hanging out in beach communities.

Having worked with youths before in his home state of Alabama and Tennessee, Lovett said he made it his personal mission to help that population when he moved to San Diego about two years ago.

“When I came to San Diego, I saw the needs of the homeless were so great,” Lovett said.

While professionals in the field say homeless young people typically avoid shelters, there are few other options available in the county. No emergency shelter exists in the county specifically for young people, and only a handful of nonprofits have housing and long-term programs for them.

Since receiving the $200,000 county contract, Lovett has hired Lindsay Ward as director of housing and social services.

“We’re brand new, so we’re having to build a program, learn what works and what doesn’t, and build relations with other nonprofits,” she said.

Ward said tenants in the homes will be part of an 18-month program designed to put them on a track toward self-sufficiency. The nonprofit is looking for business partners willing to take on the young workers.

Tenants already work at the Irenic, a music venue MissionGathering runs at 3090 Polk Ave. They also work at 8 West, a boutique soap company Lovett started to raise funds for the program.

Its name refers to the western end of Interstate 8 at Ocean Beach, which Lovett said has a large homeless population of youth.

The soap is available online at 8west.org and at the Holistic Science Co. in Ocean Beach and Seaside Market in Encinitas.

Some of the men living in the Hillcrest home entered the program through an outreach program Urban Street Angels runs in Ocean Beach. On Tuesday nights, Ward said volunteers with the group drive a van from MissionGather to Ocean Beach where they meet young people on the street and ask if they are interested in a meal, a hot shower and a warm bed at MissionGathering, which runs a weekly shelter with about 20 beds.

Nick, 21, has lived in the Hillcrest house for five months and first learned about it by staying at the Tuesday night shelter.

Originally from Reno, Nevada, Nick said a sense of adventure led him to hop in a van with $30 dollars to work on a ranch with some friends in Oregon.

Nick said he and his three traveling companions traveled to San Diego to escape the cold. They were parked in their over-heated van near the pier in Ocean Beach on a rainy February day when someone from the nonprofit asked if they wanted to spend the night in the shelter.

“I was stoked,” he said.

Since joining the program, Nick said he hopes to get help landing a construction job, which will give him experience to build a career.

“I’m able to have a hand-up, so to speak,” he said. “Nobody wants to hire a guy that’s living in a van.”

Nick said he thinks most homeless youth are willing to work, but they never have the opportunity.

Aaron, 21, also moved into the house after staying in the MissionGathering shelter.

“I’d rather be warm and homeless rather than cold and homeless,” he said about why he moved from Missouri to San Diego.

Aaron said he didn’t consider himself homeless, but “ceilingly challenged.”

“I wasn’t homeless,” he said. “I just didn’t have a roof.”

Under a requirement from Behavioral Health Services, some of the people in the program were referred by the county because they have mental health issues that may include anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder from living on the street.

In Normal Heights, the house for women includes 24-year-old twins Dynasty and Destiny. Their mother died when they were 12 and their father died in 2014, and late last year they left their home town of Port Huron, Mich., where they had become homeless.

“We just figured we’d come out here for a fresh start,” Destiny said.

The two had mental health issues, and Dynasty said she was hospitalized when she was referred to Urban Street Angels. Her sister followed.

Both sisters are attending Brightwood College, an online school. Destiny is considering going into psychology and Dynasty is studying to be a nurse or medical assistant.

Lovett said he is looking for two more houses to expand the program.

“We’re looking for owners of houses who believe in what we’re doing,” he said. “Our goal is, within the next 12 months, we want 24 beds. In five years, we want houses for 100 kids.”

Urban Street Angels is similar to Doors of Change, a 15-year-old nonprofit that opened a home for four homeless young men near San Diego State University last January. Unlike Urban Street Angels, it has no contract with the contract and operates largely through fund-raising.

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