Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1314 into law on Oct. 1. The law will drive significant reform to transitional housing programs that serve 2,100 foster youth ages 18-21 across California.

Good River Partners, a mission-driven organization committed to ending the foster care-to-homelessness pipeline, has been awarded a grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) to research innovative financing models that can accelerate the development and acquisition of affordable housing.

During the second half of 2024, Good River Partners set out to understand and document the unique housing needs and desires of transition-age foster youth preparing to or recently exited foster care in Los Angeles.

About a third of young people who age out of New York City’s foster care system are being forced to stay longer in the city’s care because they can’t find affordable places to live, according to a report released Wednesday.

Every year, 160 or so young New Yorkers over the age of 21 age out of the city’s foster care system. A lack of quality housing makes it difficult to lay a foundation for adulthood. Without housing support and resources, many face homelessness, unemployment and mental health issues.

New Report Charts Vision to End New York CIty’s Foster Care to Homelessness Pipeline

The Fair Futures' Youth Advisory Board (YAB) – comprised of 19 young adults impacted by the child welfare system – is engaged in an ambitious effort to ensure all youth exiting foster care in New York City have access to safe, high-quality, and integrated housing located in desirable communities.

Fighting homelessness requires simultaneously taking people off the street, while preventing others from ever finding themselves unhoused. 

In Los Angeles, the City, led by Mayor Karen Bass, and the County have made significant strides on the first part of that equation. The 2024 homelessness count found that the unsheltered population had dropped by 5% in the County, while the City had reduced street homelessness by 10%. 

Advocates for California’s foster youth are criticizing Governor Gavin Newsom’s plan to cut several programs they say are critical to keeping foster youth from falling into homelessness. 

Newsom proposed the cuts in January as part of his plan to close the state’s multi-billion budget deficit. 

When California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a budget measure last summer that would increase the financial support provided to older youth and young adults in the state’s foster care system, it felt like a miracle. Less than a year later, Newsom proposed a 2024-25 budget completely eliminating that essential increase in funding for housing and other support services, saying he aims to trim the state’s financial deficit.

In an effort to address the critical housing needs of foster youth, California State Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, has submitted bill, AB 2674, which encourages private sector investment in affordable housing with units specifically for foster youth and low-income families.

There is a well-documented relationship between foster care and homelessness. The CalYOUTH study of foster youth outcomes found that 25 percent of former California foster youth had experienced homelessness by the age of 23, and an additional 28 percent reported that they had“couched surfed.”1Furthermore, the 2022 Los Angeles Homeless point in time count found that, of the total unsheltered population, 35 percent(15,612 individuals)had experienced either the child welfare system or juvenile justice system at some point during their childhood.

Combatting California’s most pressing issue of homelessness is all about increasing the outflow of people from the street, while decreasing the inflow onto it. A highly cost-effective approach is to identify a group predisposed to becoming homeless and ensuring they don’t slip through.

This bill would establish the California Affordable and Foster Youth Housing Finance Innovation Program and would require the agency to issue credit instruments, as defined, to qualified housing sponsors, as defined, for the construction, acquisition, and renovation of qualified projects, as defined. For all dwelling units in a qualified project that are reserved for specified tenants, the bill would require the qualified housing sponsor to, upon request of the agency, verify each tenant that satisfies specified provisions is either a current or former foster youth or a low-income household and would prohibit the qualified housing sponsor from charging such tenants a rent that exceeds the fair market rent, as specified.

Ten years ago, I co-founded Make It Happen for Yolo County, a nonprofit that provides furniture and household items to underserved young adults who are moving into independent living and adulthood.

Our clients, who are referred to as transition-age youths or TAY, are often coming out of foster care. Since our beginning, we have served more than 250 transition-age youths in Yolo County. No other organization in Yolo County provides these services.

After I turned 18 in foster care in 2016, I became eligible for the Supervised Independent Living Placement (SILP) program, which is a form of direct cash assistance that goes to foster youth ages 18 to 21. 

Access to these funds was the only reason I was able to afford housing during those years and I have since moved on to secure an apartment and live independently.

California increased the upper age of foster care from 18 to 21 with the passage of Assembly Bill 12 in 2010. As part of that legislation, California created the Supervised Independent Living Placement (SILP), a new foster care placement exclusively for 18-to-21- year-olds that provides a greater selection of living options and a higher level of independence.

In Los Angeles County, foster kids entering adulthood generally confront this rocky transition period without the guidance and support of parents — or often any other adults who have been in their lives on a consistent basis. While all young people could probably use some help navigating the many issues that characterize early adulthood, foster youth are often left to fend more or less for themselves.