By Hoa Quach 

The holidays have encouraged a North Park nonprofit to ramp up its efforts of serving the homeless.

Urban Street Angels (USA), an all-volunteer nonprofit that serves an estimated 3,000 homeless young people in San Diego each month, will host its third annual North Park Christmas on Saturday, Dec. 13.

The free event, which is sponsored by Thrivent Financial, will include music, food, drinks and raffle prizes with proceeds benefiting the charity. The nonprofit is also collecting sleeping bags to distribute to the homeless in San Diego.

USA began as a program out of Mission Gathering Christian Church in 2008 and was refashioned into its own nonprofit just this year. The agenda of the nonprofit is simple: bring hot meals and goods like shoes and blankets to homeless youth six to eight times a month. And, when the recipients are ready to receive additional help getting off the street, USA will provide them with resources and a guide on how to do that.

USA helped eight homeless youths — or “angels” as they like to call them — off the streets in 2014 alone, according to executive director Eric Lovett. Lovett said USA was able to help those angels by visiting them each week and building those relationships.

“Our goal is that this number can grow much more,” Lovett said. “It’s important to have USA out there on a consistent basis in order to build that trust that has been broken in their lives. Then, one day when they are ready, we can help them make that step out of homelessness.”

Lovett said, from his experience, North Park, Downtown and Ocean Beach seem to have the most homeless young people.

Miriam Marquez, a North Park resident who has volunteered with USA since its creation in 2009, knows first-hand how important the group’s frequent visits are.

She recalls a story of meeting a 20-year-old named Nick. Nick ultimately confided in her after seeing Marquez and other volunteers each week.

“He was abused by his parents and was kicked out of his home when he was 16 because he was gay,” Marquez said. “He had diabetes and struggled to get his medication. He wanted to get off the streets but it was the only thing he knew for so long. He was scared.”

Nick is now in a sober living facility.

But Nick’s story is just one of many, Marquez said.

More than 8,500 homeless people live in San Diego County, according to the Regional Task Force on the Homeless. Of that number, about 5 percent are ages 18-24 and 12 percent are ages 25-34.

Marquez said she became a volunteer because she saw the need of an organization like USA.

“We give out without expecting anything in return,” Marquez said. “We just give out help and if they are ready for more, then we give it. We don’t just give and go too. We hang out and build relationships.”

Marquez said homeless young people are often misjudged.

“I think society thinks it’s so easy to get a job and get off the streets, especially because they are young,” Marquez said. “But they are human too. We just don’t know how much they’ve suffered unless we listen to their stories.”

Lovett said the nonprofit, which is headquartered at 3090 Polk Ave., is attempting to serve more meals during the holidays as well as distribute sleeping bags to the homeless. He also hopes to be able to hire formerly homeless staffers next year.
For more information about USA or the North Park Christmas event, visit urbanstreetangels.org.

—Contact Hoa Quach by visiting her website, hoawrites.com.