Home lets foster girls come into their own
Blossomhill Road facility gives young women a fresh start
LOS GATOS — Wanted: Seven- bedroom local home with large backyard, oldgrowth fruit trees and plenty of relaxation space for six young women and their house “monitor.” Oh, and can somebody put up an $ 800,000 down payment?
If that were a real ad for a house in Los Gatos, whoever placed it would be laughed out of town. But the nonprofit organization Unity Care Group got everything listed above, and more, for a new home for foster girls that’s now open on Blossom Hill Road.
It’s the 15th foster- care home opened by Unity Care since 1993. The Los Gatos home is named the West Valley Open Doors Home; WVOD gave Unity Care $ 800,000 for the home’s down payment. The remainder of the sales balance came in the form of a loan from Heritage Bank of Commerce.
“I feel so blessed to be here,” 19- year- old resident Veronica Perez said. “This program has given me a lot of encouragement to take care of myself. I’m not scared anymore.”
Perez entered foster care when she was 11 years old. She moved into the new home, which is for young women ages 18 to 21, in December.
It’s the first time Perez has had her own bedroom, which is where she goes when she needs some space. “I was always going from home to home just to have a place to stay, so I get used to new homes fast. Once I found the bus schedule I was good to go.” There’s a bus stop right down the street.
Veronica lives in the house with three other girls and a house monitor. There’s space for two more roommates. Since the young women are older, this is considered to be a transitional home — a safe place where they can move ahead with their lives. Currently, Perez is getting her high school diploma from the Wilson Adult Education Center in Santa Clara. “After that I plan to go to De Anza community college for classes in
child development and also criminal justice,” she said.
Prior to 2010, kids in foster care were left to fend for themselves once they turned 18. But many didn’t have the skills to make it on their own and became homeless or turned to crime to support themselves. A bill by state Sen. Jim Beall changed the age to 21.
“When I was a ( Santa Clara County) supervisor, an almost- 18- year- old member of the county’s youth commission approached me and said he was in fear of becoming homeless,” Beall said during a Feb. 7 ribbon cutting at the Los Gatos home. “The big thing we need to do is have more transitional housing. We need to have a safe place for them.”
Beall wants to raise the age kids can stay under the foster umbrella to 25 so they can go to college. “It goes beyond just when they’re children,” he said.
In addition to getting help to purchase the home, Unity Care relied on the goodwill of the community to outfit it with furniture and other necessities. San Jose Links and Robin Hood Ministries provided furniture, and beds came from Sleep Train. Rebozzi Construction of San Jose and Lowe’s Home Improvement were also singled out for their efforts, and members of the Los Gatos Mormon church completed the landscaping earlier this month.