Money crunch threatens to shut down Orange County nonprofit that houses homeless young adults

Since 2009, Build Futures has focused on helping homeless young adults get off the streets as soon as possible and providing support while they look for work, connect to other services, and secure the means to improve their lives.

Now the Huntington Beach-based nonprofit is worried about its own future.

“After the first of the year, it really will be week to week,” said Kevin O’Grady who is completing his first year as executive director of Build Futures.

Operators of Build Futures say they need an immediate infusion of about $25,000 to make it to January.

Coupled with about $35,000 left in the bank, Build Futures figures enough emergency donations will help keep its doors open until the more sustaining private and government grants it seeks come through and allow continued operation in 2019.

Without help, “I’m guessing it’s going to have to close,” said Amanda Blanton, who has been a Build Futures board member for nearly five years and is serving as its acting chair.

She added: “I don’t want to think about that.”

Underserved population

Build Futures is the rare nonprofit that focuses on the needs of young adults, who typically do not feel comfortable in homeless shelters that are mostly populated by older adult males.

Young women, especially, fear sexual assault in congregate facilities.

By the end of November, the organization had provided temporary housing to about 180 clients.

Build Futures serves men and women ages 18 to 24. More than 90 percent are from Orange County, O’Grady said.

Most come from abusive homes, are runaways, or grew up in the foster care system. While many had been using drugs, only about a third have an addiction, most often to methamphetamine, O’Grady said.

Some have mental health issues or criminal records. Others had been working and recently lost a job.

All seem desperate when they arrive at the tight, two-room office Build Futures occupies on the second floor of a Beach Boulevard strip mall.

Mike Lind, 23, has been in the Build Futures program for a year.

His upbringing is common among those the program serves: He was removed from his family when he was 4 or 5, he can’t remember exactly.

Authorities took him to Orangewood Children’s Home in Orange and placed him in the foster care system. Lind lived in several foster family homes and then group homes.

Build Futures found emergency housing for Lind and remains a supportive safety net for him. He landed a temporary job at a Walgreens store and pays his own rent now.

The same Wednesday afternoon when Lind stopped by Build Futures, one case manager met with a 22-year-old man with autism who had spent the past nine months sleeping near railroad tracks in Anaheim. Another client dozed beneath a desk, resting up for work.

Of his motivation to improve his life, Lind said:

“You try to rise above what the system expects you to become when your dad has been in and out of jail and your mom is a junkie.”

New direction

Build Futures requires clients to be actively seeking employment and moving toward self sufficiency. Sometimes, it reconnects them to family. A client doesn’t usually need more than a couple of months of subsidized housing.

But now Build Futures is down to housing 10 clients a month where that number used to be 40.

During one recent week, O’Grady anguished over turning away about a dozen young people who needed help.

“They come here broken,” he said. “It’s just not right.”

Late last year, Build Futures began a change of direction when founder and director Kathy Tillotson retired. Under Tillotson, the nonprofit had relied entirely on volunteers and donations to support its mission and never sought any government funding.

Tillotson would rent rooms at sober living homes to house clients, whether or not they had problems with drugs or alcohol. She said in a 2016 interview with the Register that the sober living homes were the only affordable places with rooms available right away.

The goal was to get the young people off the streets within a day or two and not have them languish on a waiting list.

On average, it costs Build Futures about $560 a month to house a client and provide such help as bus passes, food and a cellphone if they don’t have one, O’Grady said. Other support might include paying for a haircut or purchasing a work uniform.

Money became tighter in 2018, when Build Futures began paying O’Grady and two part-time case managers to create a stable and reliable staff, board member Blanton said. Their salaries took up much of the $177,956 the organization had in assets at the end of 2017.

“To grow a nonprofit and get the support we’re looking for in Orange County, we need somebody there all the time to do that,” Blanton said.

Build Futures also has been experiencing an increase in the number of young people seeking help, O’Grady said: “It seems like we’re getting more and more kids coming straight out of jail.”

Fingers crossed

Build Futures has mailed 500 end-of-the-year donation requests to potential supporters. And fingers are crossed for grant awards.

“We have $500,000 in grant requests out, but most of them we won’t hear about until March,” O’Grady said.

Ultimately, Build Futures wants to pivot away from placing its clients in sober living homes, and operate its own homes, according to Blanton and O’Grady.

“My concern right now,” O’Grady said, “is how do we get to February?”

To find out more, go to buildfutures.org.