Hundreds of runaway and homeless teens have found a safe place in Waikiki to get help for a few hours during the afternoon.

The Youth Outreach, or YO!, drop-in center is open four days — 16 hours a week. It serves between 25 and 50 kids on most days, providing hot meals, medical and educational assistance, job counseling, lockers, and nurturing from volunteers and staff, says program director Carla Houser.

Houser is now working with people she calls "YO! angels," who in March formed Friends of Youth Outreach. The group aims to create a full-time residential shelter that will offer a variety of services to help homeless youth become self-reliant adults.

The outreach group has set up an endowed foundation through Hawaii Community Foundation to raise $5 million for the project.

Youth Outreach was established 26 years ago and is operated by the Waikiki Health Center and Hale Kipa, which serves at-risk adolescents. The nonprofit is largely dependent on donations from individuals, churches, community groups and businesses.

Situated in a small, crowded house on a narrow Waikiki Street, the drop-in center’s decor is cheerfully embellished with giant painted flowers and graffiti on the courtyard walls.

At the center, Houser said, youth "can express themselves and make mistakes in a safe environment." She added, "This is the closest thing to home" that some of the teens have.

Jane Anderson, one of FOYO’s founders, started helping at the YO! center nine years ago, inspired by the enthusiasm of her late husband Bill, who supported it through his Rotary Club and other organizations.

Earlier this year, as challenging issues tied to homelessness in Waikiki and elsewhere in Hawaii were growing, Anderson said FOYO members "realized we needed to do something more."

"It is vital that we get a residential facility for YO!," Anderson said, adding that the most important thing about the center is that kids contending with homelessness or abuse situations have "found love and support" at the Waikiki house.

Anderson and FOYO member Dana Anderson belong to the Parish of St. Clement in Makiki, which provides the drop-in center with hot meals and other forms of support. Dana Anderson said she gathers clothing and supports the GED (General Education Diploma) program offered at YO! in an effort to nurture self-esteem and independence through education.

"I began a scholarship specifically for YO! students who successfully pass the GED, and that scholarship, largely assisted by the vestry at St. Clement’s, (will go to) three students soon. The scholarship will be awarded through the Lunalilo Scholars Program at Kapiolani Community College First-Year Experience," said Dana Anderson, who is not related to Jane Anderson. "Carla and her staff are really working miracles with homeless youth and turning lives around."

Amid recent homeless sweeps of Kakaako encampments, Houser said, unattached teenagers were overlooked as the city focused on relocating families to shelters. She described September as a difficult month as staff members helped teens pack up their possessions at encampments and haul them to the YO! center for storage.

Recalling the sight of a girl who poured oatmeal on the ground in the shape of a cross after her tent was removed, Houser said, "It really sunk in for us that this was their village, as they called it," and for some homeless individuals the dismantling of the home or community was traumatic.

While teen runaways usually make up most of YO! clientele, the drop-in center is now seeing in increase in elementary school kids attached to older siblings or adults, Houser said. Consequently, YO! is working with more families and schools than it ever has to make sure kids stay in school, she said.

For information about FOYO’s residential center project, visit friendsofyouthoutreach.org.