S.J. County seeking solutions for foster youths

STOCKTON — As part of the fight against homelessness, officials are seeking better outcomes and more support for San Joaquin County’s foster youths, a population prone disproportionately to landing on the streets once its members age out of services.

“This is a really critical component to the prevention of homelessness,” said Supervisor Kathy Miller, chairwoman of the county task force that has been working to find solutions to the crisislevel problem.

Toward that end, the county soon will receive free, expert assistance in its prevention efforts, Human Services Agency Director Michael Miller told the Board of Supervisors during Tuesday’s meeting.

Specifically, Michael Miller said nationally recognized child welfare professional Denise A. Goodman has entered into an agree- ment with the California Department of Human Services to provide training to improve outcomes for foster youths. And the state has offered Goodman’s services to San Joaquin County at no cost. Miller said some of Goodman’s training will be on ways to recruit more families to sign up as foster families willing to take young people into their homes and keep them out of group homes, where the outcomes tend to be worse, according to officials.

"We look at it as an opportunity to get out there and recruit more foster homes and provide the support those foster homes need to be able to continue serving our foster youths,” Michael Miller said. “(Foster homes are) just a more nurturing, safe, permanent place for foster youths to grow (than group homes).”

Miller said that roughly 1,400 of the county’s population of 1,500 foster youths live in foster homes. The rest, he said, live in group homes.

“Group homes have their place in providing services, but eventually we want to move foster youths from group homes to a foster-home setting,” Miller said.

Experts in the field say as many as half of all foster youths in the United States become homeless once they age out of foster care, and that they are likelier than the general public to remain homeless for an extended period.

Kathy Miller said providing transitional housing and continuing education to foster youths after they reach 18, and teaching them life and self-sufficiency skills, also are vital to homelessness prevention.