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By Jorge Casuso
June 13 -- After more than five years helping to
keep Santa Monica’s at-risk youth off the streets and
out of trouble, the Pico Youth and Family Center has two-and-a-half
months to find a new home.
The center -- which includes a recording studio and two small
computer labs, and offers counseling to young people -- was
given notice that they must vacate the 2,000-square-foot space
near Pico and Lincoln boulevards the group has occupied since
it opened its doors in February 2002.
“It was completely unexpected,” said Oscar de
la Torre, the center’s executive director and a member
of the School Board. “I was expecting that we would
renew the lease.”
After its initial three-year-lease expired, the center was
on a year-to-year-lease, he said.
De la Torre was offered a longer lease about a year ago,
but chose not to enter a long-term commitment because he expected
the center would move to the newly expanded Virginia Avenue
Park.
Instead, the City launched its own youth program at the park.
On Tuesday night, the City Council not only renewed its yearly
funding of the center, earmarking $304,600 for the upcoming
fiscal year, it pitched in another $30,000 to help with a
new lease.
“I’m very appreciative that the City has consistently
stepped up to the plate to help us in times of need,”
de la Torre said.
De la Torre is planning to launch a capital fundraising campaign
to purchase a building for the center that would serve as
a permanent home.
“One thing we learned from this is that we have to
be owners, not renters,” he said. “The idea is
to have a permanent space. We really need to be a real institution.
“I’m gracious, and I’m grateful”
for the support from the City and the community, de la Torre
said, “and we’re going to move forward and make
that happen.”
De la Torre is currently looking for a space to lease and
has his eyes set on a storefront near Santa Monica High School,
not far from the center’s current home.
“We should be okay,” he said. “Maybe it’s
for a good reason, I don’t know. . . “The community
has been supportive of the center and God has been on our
side.”
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