Huckleberry House offers continuous 24-hour crisis services and emergency shelter to high-need youth between the ages of 11 and 17. Located on Page Street (at Lyon) in San Francisco, Huckleberry House has the distinction of being the oldest program for runaway and homeless youth in the country. Program goals are to alleviate problems of runaway and homeless youth by providing 24-hour crisis intervention and resolution services, reunite the youth with their families, empower youth to identify healthy lifestyle alternatives and develop positive decision-making.

Through a continuum of care service model, the program creates a network of support for positive, healthy adolescent development. Most of the clients are from the San Francisco Bay Area which allows us to deliver extended family preservation counseling. All Huckleberry youth receive primary medical care and peer-based prevention education through Huckleberry's Cole Street Clinic.

The National Runaway Switchboard: Huckleberry House is one of 13,000 resources listed on the National Runaway Switchboard. Established in 1971, The National Runaway Switchboard serves as a federally-designated national communication system for homeless and runaway youth. Find out more at www.1800runaway.org.

 

Archival Footage of Huckleberry House on KQED City Beat.

Originally aired on May 22, 1968

View a report on the work of Huckleberry House with teenage runaways, in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco.

This video includes Tony Batten interviewing Reverend Larry Beggs, about the problems faced by the runaways and also three youths, who describe their experiences of staying at Huckleberry House. One of them reflects, "This isn't a place for people to live, you know. It's a place for runaways to come, to try and get their problems straightened out." View the video here.