SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — Musician Elliott Guist is hitting the high notes, both on his violin and in his life. It wasn't always like this for the North County resident.
"I was going all kinds of different directions," said Guist.
Starting at 19-years-old and lasting for about half a decade, Guist was homeless, managing to survive however he could.
"I lived in a tree for six months, in Carlsbad," he told CBS 8. "Every time it approached winter, it was cold and wet."
It was an often arduous experience, not only for the cold weather, but also the cold shoulder he often got.
"You don't feel heard... you don't feel seen," he added.
"These are hidden kids," said Jeffrey Sitcov, founder of Doors of Change, a local non-profit dedicated to doing direct outreach to homeless youth on the streets of San Diego County.
"Not only are they homeless, but now there's a pandemic on top of them," Sitcov added.
Ninety percent of these homeless kids are fleeing highly dysfunctional homes, and 40% of them are from the LGBTQ+ community, according to Sitcov.
"It is the most underserved of the entire homeless population," he told CBS 8.
Doors of Change provides direct services and resources, from food to clothes to medical care, to help over 2,300 homeless kids get off the streets and in to housing since starting two decades ago.
It has also raised nearly $900,000 to accomplish their goal, through the generous support of some high-wattage star power over the years, from Elton John and Billy Joel to Aretha Franklin, and Etta James.
These superstar celebrities have lent their time and talents to help generate funds, including an upcoming concert with Three Dog Night at the Moonlight Amphitheater in Vista, scheduled for June 30.
It is also through music, as well as art, that Doors of Change reaches out to youth on the streets, more than 8,000 so far, offering to teach them an instrument.
"You just don't believe, playing a couple chords on the guitar, the ukulele, the mandolin: it can really touch these kids deeply," Sitcov told CBS 8. "It makes them feel better because they are mastering something for the first time."
Elliott Guist is one of their success stories, now off the streets and working for Doors of Change as a music teacher.
"Anything is possible if you believe in yourself," said Guist.
This crisis of youth homelessness is especially dire for students, whose families may also lack shelter: a problem exacerbated by the pandemic.
In California, while the number of homeless students for years had been steadily rising, surpassing 207,000 in 2019, it then dropped dramatically the following year as COVID set in, by almost 12 percent.
It is a trend also seen here in San Diego County.
"It was a pretty significant drop, around a 4,000 student drop in numbers," said Susanne Terry, the homeless liaison for the San Diego County Office of Education.
While on paper, it may seem that this downward trend in the number of reported homeless students is a good sign. advocates don't necessarily see it that way.
"It is definitely cause for concern," said Terry.
Once the pandemic started, and especially as schools went remote, it was far more difficult to identify and try to help students without stable shelter, according to Terry.
Those official numbers are directly tied to the government funding that schools and school districts receive to help kids.
"We were already likely under-identifying homeless families before this happened, and then the pandemic has just made it that much more difficult," Terry told CBS 8.
California is now receiving more than $98 million from President Biden's American Rescue Plan, earmarked to help identify homeless students and provide them help.
However, this critical federal funding lasts only until June 2024. Terry warned that our unsheltered communities will need help far beyond then.
"Students and teachers and families will be facing the impacts of the pandemic for years to come," she added, "Even after we are out of this worst stage."
For more information on Doors of Change, click here.
To check out musician Elliott Guist's amazing talents, check out his Instagram page.
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