Walter Philips will retire as CEO of San Diego Youth Services at the end of June. Instead of slowing down, he’s pushing the pedals from San Francisco to San Diego, biking 100 miles a day to raise money in what he calls “one more adventure” for his organization.
He turns 66 on Friday. The weeklong ride kicks off Saturday.
“I don't ride as I once did as a young man. But I don't really focus on that, because any challenge that I'm facing pales in comparison to what a young person faces on the streets every night. They don't know where they're going to sleep, where they're going to get their next meal, if somebody's going to love them. So any discomfort I’m feeling on a bicycle, you know, is minor,” he said.
He said he’s been training late nights to prepare, sometimes until 1 a.m.
His social work career has been a kind of endurance sport, too — long, steady, hard work in one direction, with the last 25 years at San Diego Youth Services (SDYC), the area’s largest provider of homeless youth services.
A lot has changed along that route.
He said when he started, “Youth homelessness was invisible. People didn’t want to recognize it. People didn't want to believe that in America's finest city, we actually have kids who don't have a place to stay.”
There’s more awareness now, and more resources, but it’s not enough, he said.
Still, every night, close to 2,000 young San Diegans don’t have a safe place to sleep, Philips said. Almost half are LGBTQ+, to whom he nods with the rainbows on his cycling shoes.
SDYC provides services to more than 14,000 youth every year, a number that’s grown about five-fold under Philips’ leadership.
Those transitioning out of the program face steep barriers to housing that are only getting higher as San Diego prices soar.
“Our young people are really at the bottom of the ladder in terms of being able to get into housing. They don't have any experience, they don't have any job skills. They don't have a rental history. Oftentimes they're coming with deficits because of the abuse and trauma they face,” he said.
Philips retires at the end of June. Jonathan Castillo, who has been the Chief Regional Officer of PATH, will replace him.
“I honestly hope my legacy is that they don't remember me,” Philips said. “Because the piece that we really need to make sure is focused on and will carry on is our mission.”
He plans to stop at youth shelters along his cycling route, crossing the finish line in San Diego on May 16.
He’s more than halfway to his goal of raising $250,000.
