Getty Images/Justin Sullivan

People walk by a homeless person sleeping in front of San Francisco City Hall Feb. 28, 2007

This year, more than 200,000 kids between 12 and 17 will be homeless--and alone--for at least one night in California, but the state has just 1,000 beds to take care of them.

That’s the finding of a new report released today by the California Homeless Youth Project, a grant-funded research and policy initiative of the California Research Bureau, the State Library and New America Media.

“There is no state agency or department that has any kind of responsibility for these kids,” said Ginny Puddefoot, who runs the project from her office at the California Research Bureau.

“We have shelters that exist for chronically homeless adults,” but when homeless teenagers show up they are often turned away or harassed, Puddefoot said.

What services do exist are managed by local governments and nonprofits, the report said, and almost two thirds of the state’s 58 counties have no services focused on unaccompanied homeless children.

Locally, the report said, Napa and Solano counties provide no services to homeless children without parents.

Alameda County has five programs; San Francisco and San Mateo counties have three programs; Contra Costa County has two programs; while Santa Clara, Marin, and Sonoma Counties all have one program.

After researchers announced their report today at a press conference in Sacramento, homeless advocates and formerly homeless young people walked the halls of the state capital trying to build support for three newly proposed pieces of legislation.

Among them is a proposal by State Sen. Carol Liu (D-La Cañada Flintridge), which would declare homeless youth to be a priority, special needs group and require the California Emergency Management Agency to develop a statewide plan to reduce youth homelessness.

Amy Lemley of the John Burton Foundation for Children Without Homes, said advocates were mindful of the state’s $26.3 billion budget deficit.

“The legislation calls on the Emergency Management Agency to develop that strategy so we have it in place when the economy gets better and we have more money,” she said.

Tasharra Shackleford, 23, said lawmakers received her positively.

Shackleford, of Richmond, was homeless for three months in 2007 after her mother threw her out of the house.

“I was homeless because I wasn’t ready for life,” she said.

Shackleford said her story shows what is possible when young people have access to programs. 

After her mother threw her out, Shackleford first landed at Calli House, a special youth shelter run by the Contra Costa County Department of Health Services.

Since then, she’s moved on to supportive housing services in El Sobrante and San Pablo, where she is working on an associate’s degree in criminal justice studies at Contra Costa Community College.