Lupita Gutierrez

Casa Youth Shelter serves and nurtures 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. Our Services For over 43 years, Casa Youth Shelter (CYS) has successfully provided immediate care, shelter, and mental health services to youth in crisis and their families. CYS provides 24/7, year-round emergency shelter care to youth, ages 12 to 17, experiencing homelessness, abuse, and other crises. We also provide non-residential counseling services to youth and their families facing a breakdown in family dynamics or other interpersonal crises causing significant personal challenges. Our program includes 12 licensed beds in a homelike setting, daily home-cooked meals, professional counseling (individual, family and group), life skills lessons, tutoring, aftercare counseling, expressive therapies, parenting classes for the youth's parents, and case management services to assist with housing, food, employment, and educational needs. On exit, residents receive aftercare counseling (individual and family) and continued 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. We welcome youth and their families regardless of where they are from, however our primary catchment areas include cities throughout Orange and Los Angeles Counties where poverty and homelessness are prevalent. We are located in Los Alamitos, CA.