Casa Youth Shelter

The mission of Casa Youth Shelter is to serve and nurture youth in crisis with shelter, counseling, and support services, empowering them to come through their crisis with increased confidence, stability, and tools for continued growth. We envision a community where all adolescents in crisis have a safe place to stay, in an environment that promotes personal growth and healthy relationships.

In 1978, Myldred Jones had already retired from the U.S. Navy as a Lieutenant Commander, played an active role in the Civil Rights Movement, and worked with then-California Governor Ronald Reagan to develop a state-wide crisis hotline for runaway teens. With help from the community, she sold her home and established Casa Youth Shelter in the three-bedroom house on one lot, and took up residence in the adjacent cottage.

In fulfillment of our founder Myldred Jones’ vision, Casa Youth Shelter (CYS) provides immediate care, emergency shelter, and mental health services to youth ages 12-17 experiencing homelessness, abuse, neglect, and other crises. From our location in Los Alamitos, CA, we provide approximately 180 adolescents annually with full shelter amenities, including 12 licensed beds, home-cooked nutritious meals, new clothes and shoes, and essential hygiene products. Residents also receive a variety of support services including individual, group, and family counseling; developmental activities including life skills classes, academic tutoring, onsite and offsite recreation, art, drum, and pet therapy; and case management services to assist youth and their families with housing, food, employment, and educational needs. Parents and guardians of residents participate in weekly parenting classes, during and after their child resides with us. On exit, clients receive aftercare counseling (individual and family) approximately once per week, as well as access to parenting classes, a teen drop-in group, and case management services, for at least three months, and up to one year post-exit.

Our Community Outreach and Youth Leadership Programs raise awareness to our programs, partaking in monthly street-based and site-based outreach activities, school and community event-based presentations, youth leadership activities, and developing collaborative partnerships throughout Orange and Los Angeles Counties, further serving 6,500+ community youth and families.

In June 2021, Casa Youth Shelter was selected as a 2021 California Nonprofit-of-the-Year by State Senator Tom Umberg representing Senate District 34, comprised of Long Beach, Anaheim, Santa Ana, and Huntington Beach.

We provided safe shelter to 148 youth in 2021. Each resident received on average 11.43 days of shelter care, translating to approximately 1,691 total nights off the streets. Of the 148 youth in our care, more than a quarter were already homeless, runaways or throwaway youth by the time they found Casa Youth Shelter for help. Almost half reported they were victims of sexual, physical, or mental abuse, or were victims of sex trafficking. The top three cities we served were Santa Ana, Anaheim, and Irvine.

Also in 2021, Casa Youth Shelter provided our 148 residents with 7,820 hours of crisis counseling, including one-on-one individual, family, and teen group counseling. Of those 148 residents, 83% self-exited our shelter meeting most if not all of their initial treatment goals, and 96% exited to safe and stable shelter.

1. Expand Counseling and Academic Trainee Program: With the growing mental health emergency among adolescents, we hope to expand our Counseling Program, which is comprised of the best and brightest MFT Trainees. 

2. Collaborative Activities: Casa Youth Shelter's Outreach Team maintains high profile positions on various issue-specific and area-specific collaboratives, such as the Orange County Human Trafficking Taskforce. These relationships have served us well, often leading directly to resident referrals and greater community education opportunities; we are also actively seeking partnerships with newer collaboratives that have formed in Orange County in response to the increasing homeless population and housing crisis.

Our primary catchment areas include cities throughout Orange and south Los Angeles Counties where homelessness and poverty are prevalent. In 2021, the three top referring cities we served were Santa Ana, Anaheim, and Irvine.

There are no demographic or geographic restrictions to our services, though we focus on providing programs and outreach in areas where we may be most helpful in alleviating the issues of youth and families in crisis.

For over 44 years, Casa Youth Shelter has become home to thousands of young people in crisis. Here, in our home, they have found more than just a bed to sleep in and a warm meal (although they’ve found those, too).

Youth come us to find safety, kindness, compassion, counseling and a path forward. They find support for their whole family, with our family counseling and parenting classes; case management services that help address a multitude of needs; counselors who will help them for weeks, months, even years after their residency ends. At Casa Youth Shelter, our residents find the home they need, right when they need it.

Fundamentally, our work reflects the high value and priority we place on individuals, teamwork, personal development, family, and the strength found in community. Our adult and teen volunteers, Board of Directors, and staff understand that the youth and families who seek our help are not defined by their situation; rather, we believe that everyone deserves and has a right to be treated with dignity and respect.