State of Homelessness in America

The National Alliance to End Homelessness recently released a report, The State of Homelessness in America, indicating that:

• Homelessness is on the rise
• Youth aging out of foster care are among the four populations most likely to go without shelter
• In the course of a year, the estimated odds of experiencing homelessness for a young adult who ages out of foster care are 1 in 6

Young Adults Are the New Face of Homelessness

Quotes from article referenced below:

• "Young adults are the new face of homelessness."

• "It's a group driven by two large converging forces: an economy that has been especially brutal on young people, and the large numbers currently exiting foster care."

• "Precise numbers are difficult to pin down. But based on a study done before the economy collapsed, an estimated 2 million young people age 18 to 24 will be homeless nationwide this year."

• "The largest driver of the young adult homeless population is the foster-care system."

Source: Generation Homeless: The New Faces of an Old Problem by InvestigateWest, a nonprofit investigative journalism center based in Seattle.

Number of Youth Aging out of Foster Care Continues to Rise; Increasing 64 percent since 1999

The Fostering Connections Resource Center serves as a library of child welfare information and resources to help states and tribes in their efforts to implement the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008.

By encouraging states to invest more resources in supporting foster youth’s transition to adulthood, federal lawmakers hope that the new law will help more youth leaving foster care have independent and productive lives.

Roth, M.M., et al (2010). Excerpts from Number of Youth Aging out of Foster Care Continues to Rise; Increasing 64 percent since 1999

• During the past 10 years, the number of children who age out of the foster care system has increased steadily, with a nearly 64 percent increase. 
• Since 1999, approximately 228,000 youth have "aged out" of foster care nationally.
• The percentage of the total foster care caseload over the age of 14 has increased steadily since 1998.
• The percentage of children and youth in foster care who are 14 through 18 has continued to grow while financial resources to serve this population through the Chafee Foster Care Independence Act has remained the same each year.

New HHS Regulations on Title IV-E IL Programs for Youth 18 and Older

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has released regulations on how states may extend their Title IV-E foster care programs for foster youth between the ages of 18 and 21.

These regulations provide flexibility to states to serve these youth in virtually any type of placement setting – foster homes, a semi-supervised apartment, host home, college dorms, and other less formal settings.

Furthermore, the regulations state that HHS has “no forthcoming regulations that will prescribe the kinds of living arrangements considered a supervised setting, the parameters of supervision, or any other conditions for youth living independently.”

This is great news for two reasons:

a.) HHS is permitting states to have flexibility to use creative and innovative programs to serve these 18, 19, and 20 year-old youth.

b.) It does not set precedent that would interfere with a state’s ability to draw down IV-E for the placement of teenage foster youth, under age 18, in supervised or semi-supervised apartment settings.

Permanent Supportive Housing and Evidence-Based Practice

After many years of development, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Center for Mental Health Services has finalized and posted a Supportive Housing Toolkit.

While this kit was developed specifically to assist individuals with mental health needs in attaining supportive housing, my hope is that some of the research and best practices found in this toolkit might be applicable to transitional youth, particularly emancipated foster care youth, as well...

• How to Use the Evidence-Based Practices KITs 
• Getting Started with Evidence-Based Practices
• Building Your Program
• Training Frontline Staff
• Evaluating Your Program
• Using Multimedia to Introduce Your EBP
• Tools for Tenants
• Brochure
• Introductory Powerpoint - available for free download at SAMHSA
• The Evidence

Designing a Website for Youth Emancipating From Foster Care

A valued friend of mine recently asked my insights regarding designing a web page for young people in her state who are "aging out" of foster care. Here is what I shared with her...

Many sites for youth include low-quality cartoons and Clip Art, rather than photographs. It's almost as if the website designers think that young adults are like children. I believe that teenagers can see right through that. I certainly could!

It's difficult to emotionally identify with Clip Art. If I were designing a young website, I would either provide photos of real-life foster care alumni and/or artwork drawn by talented young people in and from foster care, like the example above.

I would also make the content relevant to survival. When we first age out of foster care, we need to survive. That's why I like this Aussie site, because the list of topics listed at the top of the page are relevant to young people.

When I first aged out of foster care, there was a cycle that I experienced in my life. And, I see that same cycle playing out in the lives of many young people today:

The first step is: Isolation and Independence: "I can make it, I know I can! And I won't have to depend on anyone else either. The one person that I can count on is me."

The second step is: Hitting the Wall. Not having enough money to buy food. Getting involved in a dysfunctional friend/lover relationship, and feeling trapped and without other viable options. Being temporarily homeless - and wondering if this experience will last forever...

The third step is: Gotta Survive. I cannot express strongly enough how powerful this impulse is. It testifies to the power of human survival. When you are hungry and don't have food, your stomach begins to speak, louder and louder. Its growls are persistent; they stop for a moment, but eventually return.

That third step is is a doorway of entry for people who truly care and want to make a difference: Talk to me when I've hit the wall. Talk to me when I'm broken. Because all I can do at that point is listen - and, in that moment, I am just desperate enough to listen to you....

When young people emancipate from foster care, it's like a fork in the road:
- They can be empowered - or disenfranchised
- They can learn to see themselves as 'agents of change' or 'recipients of (government) services'
- They can feel powerful or powerless over their ultimate destiny

One facet of every youth page should be a call to action, and a reminder of personal accountability. People of all ages respond to the level of expectations.

And there should be opportunities to 'Band Together' to make that positive difference, both in our own live and the lives of others. None of us succeeds or fails alone.