{"id":206282,"date":"2026-03-05T22:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/206282\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T22:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:52:09","slug":"long-beach-rescue-mission-opens-new-youth-shelter-expects-it-to-be-full-immediately-long-beach-post-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/206282\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach Rescue Mission opens new youth shelter, expects it to be full \u2018immediately\u2019 \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yishreal Maxwell\u2019s 18th birthday was approaching fast.<\/p>\n

Homeless since he was 11, Maxwell entered the foster care system last March at 17. He remembers the years between, making a bed of the backseat of a 2006 Saturn Ion with his brother.<\/p>\n

With 10 months until he \u201caged out\u201d of the system, he quickly applied himself. He re-entered high school, and laid out goals of owning a car he didn\u2019t have to sleep in and becoming a professional model.<\/p>\n

The deck seemed stacked against him: About 40% of former foster children in Los Angeles County, without support, end up homeless.<\/a><\/p>\n

But Maxwell seems to have beaten the odds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019ve always wanted to be known (for) is that we never complained, we never gave up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He and a number of other young men are the inaugural class of youth aged 18 to 24 who have moved into the newly opened Timothy House at the Long Beach Rescue Mission.<\/p>\n

The 12-bed shelter, expected to open officially on Monday, will offer drug and alcohol rehabilitation, agency referrals, counseling and other services to youths who age out of the foster care system.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the latest shelter<\/a> to open at the Rescue Mission; the 15-bed Apostle House opened in 2024. In June, shelter workers hope to unveil another 60-bed shelter for women and children.<\/p>\n

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday, dignitaries spoke on the importance of the shelter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can intervene in a young person\u2019s life during the transition age, you can prevent an entire lifetime of homelessness,\u201d said Mayor Rex Richardson.<\/p>\n

About 1,100 youth annually \u201cage out of the system,\u201d but the county only has about 700<\/a> transitional housing beds.<\/p>\n

Of those, fewer than 3% have a college degree, and less than half have gainful employment. They are more likely to enter prison and show higher rates of depression, anxiety and PTSD.<\/p>\n

The Timothy House mirrors the Mission\u2019s existing New Life Program<\/a>, which helps the formerly homeless find work and stable housing in a year\u2019s time.<\/p>\n

\"\"Two women walk through the sleeping area at Timothy House, part of the Long Beach Rescue Mission, on Thursday, March 5, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

Residents will stay at the center free of charge, getting a place to sleep, regular meals and guidance until they can find an affordable home and a stable job.<\/p>\n

In a comfortable, homelike environment, they will be taught basic life skills \u2014 how to budget, apply for a job \u2014 while also finishing school and looking at future programs in trade education or college.<\/p>\n

Service workers at the Mission say such a center is sorely needed.<\/p>\n

\"\"Supervisor Janice Hahn lifts the ribbon after the opening ceremony for Timothy House at the Long Beach Rescue Mission on Thursday, March 5, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be able to equip them with the tools to be able to survive in society,\u201d said Justin McWilliams, who will help run the new shelter. \u201cWe don\u2019t want you to go out here with a chain on your leg and get tugged right back into homelessness. \u201c<\/p>\n

McWilliams said they have already moved four young men into the new shelter. The other eight beds will fill up \u201cimmediately,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

These teens are asked to lay out clear goals. With their sights set on the future, shelter workers say, their dreams might be realized under proper tutelage.<\/p>\n

\"\"Yishreal Maxwell shares his experience with homelessness. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n

Richardson said the shelter helps in \u201cflipping the narrative\u201d around young men, especially those of color, who are treated as the source of the problem rather than a victim of a dysfunctional system.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we fix our systems, then our young people will have the opportunities to thrive in our communities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Maxwell said his goal is to leave the shelter with a stable job with money set aside, a high school degree and a home large enough for him and his brother.\u00a0 \u201cAnd then just be stable, be at peace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yishreal Maxwell\u2019s 18th birthday was approaching fast. Homeless since he was 11, Maxwell entered the foster care system…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-206282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}