HUNTINGTON BEACH : Builders Call Teen Shelter a Priority

Officials of the Building Industry Assn. of Orange County said Wednesday that the Huntington Beach Youth Shelter is one of their priority charitable projects for 1991.

The BIA’s HomeAid program, which helps build shelters for the homeless, is providing the work and material for renovating a picturesque old house in Central Park that will be used for the city’s first shelter for homeless teen-agers.

The 18-bed shelter will open in June for homeless teens who are estranged from their families, said Carol Kanode, president of Huntington Beach Youth Shelter and a trustee-elect for the Ocean View School District.

“The BIA’s HomeAid is providing all the material and all the work for this project,” Kanode said. “This has been a three-year effort to get this youth shelter started, and we’re very grateful for their help.”

During an outdoor press conference at the site of the new youth shelter, S. Timothy Galvin, representing HomeAid’s board of directors, said the Huntington Beach Youth Shelter “is HomeAid’s most ambitious project for 1991.”

Galvin noted that HomeAid, which was started in 1989, has completed shelters for the homeless in Garden Grove, Midway City, Fullerton, San Clemente and Orange. The new shelters have increased housing for the homeless by 15% in Orange County, he said.

“HomeAid is proud to be helping the Huntington Beach Youth Shelter,” Galvin said.

There are thousands of homeless youths on the streets every night in Orange County, “yet Orange County has only 26 beds available for these people,” he said. “This Huntington Beach Youth Shelter will provide 18 more beds for those youths.”

The youth shelter is being built in a 1920s-era white frame house in the park. It was once used by oil field caretakers during the city’s petroleum boom. City historians and preservationists say the house, which is inside the park and has a panoramic view of greenery and open space, is one of a few “colonial-revival architectural style” buildings left in Huntington Beach.

Galvin noted that HomeAid is not only building a modern youth shelter inside the old structure, but also is strengthening and preserving the historic building. The house faces Talbert Avenue and is next to the city’s main library.