Last night at the high school outreach, a young woman named Jessie walked through our doors. She’s 15 years old, carries a backpack with everything she owns, and she came to us because she’d finally run out of options.
“I don’t want to go home,” she told us quietly. “I haven’t felt safe there in months.”
For weeks, Jessie had been couch surfing—staying with friends, their families, anyone who would take her in for a night or two. But couches run out. Friends’ parents ask questions. Welcome wears thin. And eventually, a 15-year-old girl finds herself with nowhere to sleep and no one left to call.
That’s when she found us.
The Reality We Face
Here’s what broke our hearts last night: San Diego County has only one shelter specifically for unaccompanied minors. One. For a county of over 3 million people. For every Jessie who musters the courage to ask for help, we face the agonizing reality of extremely limited options.
As we made calls and worked to find Jessie a safe place to sleep, the calendar on the wall seemed to mock us. The holidays are here. School will close for winter break in days. Families will gather around tables filled with food, exchange gifts, share laughter.
And Jessie will sit in a shelter. Alone.
Why This Matters
Jessie’s story isn’t unique—it’s just one we happened to hear last night. There are dozens more young people in North County right now, sleeping in cars, in canyons, on beaches, or cycling through that same exhausting rotation of temporary couches. They’re in your kids’ classrooms. They sit next to your children at lunch. They’re invisible until suddenly, heartbreakingly, they’re not.
These aren’t “bad kids.” They’re kids in bad situations. Kids who deserve safety, stability, and a chance to just be kids.
What We Need
We need more shelter beds for minors. We need more foster families willing to provide emergency placements. We need more community members who understand that youth homelessness isn’t something that happens somewhere else—it’s happening here, in Oceanside, right now.
But mostly, we need you to care. To see these young people. To understand that behind every statistic is a Jessie—someone’s daughter, someone’s classmate, someone’s neighbor—who just wants to feel safe.
This holiday season, while we count our blessings and gather with loved ones, let’s remember the Jessies of our community. Let’s do better. They deserve nothing less.
If you’d like to support StandUp for Kids Oceanside’s work with homeless and at-risk youth, please visit www.standupforkids.org/oceanside/donate or contact us at [email protected]. Every donation, every volunteer hour, every act of advocacy makes a difference.
If you’re a young person in need of help, please reach out. You are not alone.