Foster Care Should Not Lead to Homelessness

Each year we have hundreds of new cases of homelessness in San Francisco. There are many root causes: poverty, lack of jobs, lack of affordable housing, mental illness, drug abuse and alcoholism. But another key contributor to these new cases of homelessness is misguided state and federals laws that force foster kids out of their homes at age 18.

Once kids in foster care reach age 18 or graduate from high school, their foster parents receive no more public money to support them. As a result, many of these kids are out on their own without the resources to support themselves. According to the non-profit Honoring Emancipated Youth (HEY), within two years of emancipation over 50 percent have episodes of homelessness; 65 percent need immediate housing upon release.

Fewer than 10 percent of foster youth that graduate from high school enroll in college, and less than 1 percent graduate from college, according to a fact sheet developed by the California Youth Connection and cited by HEY. We must address root cause problems like this or we will face a perpetual cycle of new homeless cases each year.

State and local legislators and a few non-profits have begun addressing this problem. But the problem is complex and state and federal funds are limited in their application. For example, government funds only go to those kids who stay with their foster parents through emancipation. Many foster teens don’t, and therefore don’t qualify for these governmental funds. So what can be done? There is a need for policy responses. Government can be more strategic.

To start, we should not cut off funding for foster parents when foster kids turn 18 and instead continue to fund foster parents until their foster kids reach 23 or are able to demonstrate that they are able to support themselves independently before then. The incremental cost to the government to fund foster parents for a few extra years surely would dwarf the comparative costs of incarceration, teen pregnancies, drug addiction and homelessness. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that, after emancipation, without a home or support, 25 percent of foster kids will become incarcerated within two years after they leave the system; 67 percent of girls have at least one child within 5 years of emancipation, more than 50 percent will become unemployed and one-third will be on public assistance.