Freshly baked cookies, hot chocolate and smiles greeted visitors to the Jackson Street Youth Shelter's open house on Thursday to show off the remodeled portions of the refuge for young people in crisis.

The shelter, at 555 N.W. Jackson Ave., serves homeless and at-risk youths ages 10 to 17, and now has the space to offer overnight accommodations to 12 children a night - three more than before the renovation.

Program Director Barbara Falck showed off the expanded sunny yellow kitchen, which featured a roomy center island.

"The general consensus is people love it, and some people wish it was the kitchen in their own home," lead caseworker Jen Chen said, confiding, "Like me."

The kitchen work began in August and was finished a few weeks ago. During the upgrade, a "rustic" kitchen consisting of a backyard barbecue produced many a meal; dishes were washed at an outdoor utility sink.

"The kids are just loving the fact that we have hot and cold running water in here, and we have a dishwasher," Chen said.

The open house also enabled visitors to tour the remodeled boys' bathroom and to see the new bunk beds built by a volunteer from Lebanon. The nonprofit shelter opened in 2000 and is primarily funded through grants and private donors, said Falck. Plans are in the works to open another youth shelter in Albany, possibly in 2011. Having two youth shelters in two different counties would be precedent-setting, Falck said.

At Thursday's event, signs in various parts of the house encouraged individuals or groups to support the shelter by "adopting" a room. "This just gives more information about Jackson Street, that we're here to provide shelter to at-risk and homeless youth," Chen said of Thursday's event.

"It helps put a face on (the issue of) homeless youth."