Two rallies this month drew attention to young people without homes in San Diego County, a population that’s grown amid the homelessness crisis.
Local nonprofits organized marches in downtown San Diego and in East County.
“Homeless youth are oftentimes invisible,” Laura Tancredi-Baese, CEO of Home Start, said in El Cajon. “They many times might blend in and just seem like a regular young person.”
“They need our support,” she added.
The state Legislature has designated November as California Runaway and Homeless Youth Prevention Month, and San Diego Councilmember Marni von Wilpert recently presented a similar proclamation from the city.
The annual tally by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness found 50 children and more than 270 people in their late teens or early 20s living without shelter in January, a slight increase from the previous year. The number of younger residents in shelters also rose to nearly 1,700.
Those totals may be an undercount, especially since some forms of homelessness, like couch surfing, can be hard to track.
Advocates said thousands more were dealing with precarious housing and that LGBTQ youth were especially vulnerable.
Among the hundreds of homeless people around the region who’ve died so far this year, more than a dozen were younger than 25, according to preliminary data from the county medical examiner.
On Nov. 15, San Diego Youth Services organized a march from city hall. Haley Veniegas, the group’s director of services, led a chant of “a roof for every youth” and a small crowd walked through the rain with signs calling for more housing.
Alexander Satberry, left, walks downtown with Crystal Rivera and representatives from San Diego Youth Services to raise awareness about homeless youth on Nov. 15, 2023.
(Alejandro Tamayo/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The next day, Home Start led a walk in El Cajon from Little House Family Resource Services to the city’s Centennial Park. A number of local leaders attended, including Michelle Metschel and Jack Shu, council members from El Cajon and La Mesa.
