Let’s not forget foster youth amid coronavirus crisis
COVID-19 targets us all, as its victims cross all boundaries of class, wealth, schooling, ethnicity, gender and age. Still, some sections of the population, wherein the virus can and has spread rapidly, require obvious attention.
Our homeless neighbors come readily to mind, and local responders — to the extent they can effectively manage their responses — plot how best unsheltered individuals can be isolated, tested and treated. This is not easy, and so, as we round out the month of May, National Foster Care Month, let us not forget or neglect those prime candidates for homelessness, our foster youth.
Each year more than 20,000 youth age out of foster care, and according to the National Center for Housing and Child Welfare, one in four will be forced to endure homelessness within four years of leaving foster care.
That figure alone is unacceptable. It deprives our nation’s future of productivity and a fulfilled citizenry. But amidst this national crisis, as economic opportunities vanish by the minute, a pipeline from foster care to homelessness is forming.
As a former foster kid who bounced from placement to placement before finding my forever family and, ultimately, meaning in education and in giving back to youths facing circumstances like my own, I know firsthand how alarming this trend is.
At birth I was placed in foster care and was adopted at age 5. My adopted family failed me, meting out abuse and neglect. So, at age 12 I returned to foster care. This became a pattern but, fortunately, I eventually found the foster parents I would come to know as Mom and Dad.
Mom and Dad gave me a healthy life on a farm in the Pacific Northwest. I benefited from the stable family life afforded by them and their two biological children, along with a few other foster children. And though I was sometimes lured to the streets of Spokane, where I learned to fend for myself and witnessed the hopelessness of youths like me, the stability and sense of security I gained on the farm made it possible for me to see a better future.
As an adolescent, I joined Job Corps and worked my way through college. I have been committed to serving foster kids ever since.
Today I ask myself: What if in one chance moment I had chosen to tough it out on the streets and not return home? What if the novel coronavirus had struck then? I cringe to think where I would be today.
But that is the real crisis facing too many of our youths now. Enforced stayat-home orders can protect them temporarily, but as they age out of foster care with diminished prospects, we must be ready to support them when the pandemic ebbs.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, whose own life testifies to the positive impact of inspired parental guidance, has deepened the federal government’s commitment to combating homelessness among foster youth. Last year, HUD launched “Foster Youth to Independence” to house those aging out or already homeless. Regional Administrator David Tille is leading the charge here in Massachusetts.
A first-of-its-kind program, FYI offers housing vouchers to eligible foster kids along with the foundation on which to build their futures. Thus sheltered, they can dream as all American adolescents can. They can pursue jobs or finish schooling.
HUD is not alone, as it coordinates with child welfare agencies to identify eligible youths. I know firsthand, not only the importance of a stable home, but also the urgency of such coordination to remove bureaucratic roadblocks, a priority government at every level is learning to mitigate during this COVID19 crisis.
Since its launch in 2019, HUD has awarded $4,267,203 through FYI to house and serve over 600 eligible young adults in 31 communities, across 17 states.
For too long, foster youths have been cast off into the shadows of our nation’s homelessness epidemic. HUD is determined that they be cast off no longer, and especially as we continue to grapple with this pandemic.