"As we grow, and our communities grow, we want to give back more," said Erica Taylor, Golden 1's vice president of communications and community relations. "As we thrive, we want our communities to thrive."

Golden 1 had started talking with professionals who help the homeless 18 months ago. But its search for where to assist was sealed by a spot survey of the homeless in Sacramento County earlier this year found there were about 240 people ages 18 to 24 who were living on street.

The number didn't include those who were couch-surfing, and didn't try to determine the number of children who were homeless. Experts believed the number would be much higher if those groups were included.

The numbers would still be only a tiny fraction of the county's 1.5 million residents, but the numbers caught the attention of executives at Golden 1.

"We were taken aback by the number of youth and young adults that were counted. That's too many young people who are spending nights on the street," Taylor said.

Golden 1 learned that Wind Youth Services and other nonprofits wanted to open a center that could provide a broad array of services under one roof designed to help those ages 12 to 24.

"The needs of these individuals are different than chronically homeless adults," Taylor said. "Young people are often couch surfing, so they wouldn't be considered your traditional homeless person you might see sleeping outside. And they're distrustful of places that serve adults."

Many of the kids are in foster homes, or abusive homes. Many of them are escaping a violent environment, or an environment with drug abuse.

Often conditions at home – or wherever they are – are so bad that living on the street seems a better alternative.

"We want to prevent that," Taylor said.

The funding from Golden 1 will support three positions and other expenses when the center opens in February or March 2018 in a 14,000-square-foot office building at 815 S Street in downtown Sacramento. The center will have a medical clinic, classrooms for youth completing high school, employment programs and an art and youth leadership program. Partner organizations include Lutheran Social Services, Goodwill, and Waking the Village.

There will be some staffing 24 hours a day to allow for crisis responses, but the center will not house youth overnight. They will stay at existing youth shelters, plus 20 beds that will be added at Wind's current headquarters three miles away when the offices move into the new location.

Suzi Dotson, Wind Youth Services' executive director, said many youth are pushed out of their homes by financially strapped parents, who expect them to support themselves.

"It's really hard to do that in Sacramento. We have a really high cost of living, really high rents," she said.

One strategy is to reunify the youth with their families, even if it is an aunt or other extended family member. Making that work requires professionals who can start the necessary conversations and find available help for counseling or other services.

Last year, Wind Youth Services handled 9,000 visits from about 1,000 individuals. This year there were even more, and the load is expected to exceed 12,000 visits from 1,500 individuals in 2018.

However, with the center's focus on prevention, Dotson said she hopes the number of those who end up homeless will dwindle.

"Our focus with the Golden 1 money is with prevention: moving upstream so we can help young people sooner, maybe before they become homeless or when they first become homeless, so they're not spending tons of time living on the street, becoming engrained in homeless culture and experiencing the trauma of living on the street," Dotson said.

"We think it's going to make a huge difference."