Good River Partners is a Los Angeles-based public benefit company with a mission to end the foster care to homelessness pipeline. We envision a future wherein all youth transitioning out of foster care have access to high quality housing that meets their needs.

Unfortunately, access to high quality housing is not the reality. Across the country, transition-aged foster youth face extreme housing precarity and far too often fall into homelessness.

National research has found that between 31 and 46 percent of transition-age foster youth had experienced homelessness at least once before they turned 26. Survey data in California found that one quarter of former foster youth between the ages of 21 and 23 experienced homelessness, with an additional 28 percent reporting they had couch surfed. And in Los Angeles County, past homeless counts have shown that up to 35 percent of the unsheltered population had experienced the foster care or juvenile justice systems.

While pernicious, this pipeline can be dismantled, which is exactly what Good River Partners – led by two child welfare experts, one who experienced foster care himself – aims to do.

Good River’s work is predicated on a simple thesis. Given existing and robust public financial support for transition-aged foster youth, it is possible to develop, acquire and set aside housing that meets foster youth’s needs and provides a platform for lifelong success. What has been missing is a comprehensive housing solution for this population.

Accomplishing our vision requires a multi-pronged approach that creates the political, social, and financial ecosystems that allow these young people to fully realize their incredible potential. 

Good River works across four pillars: real estate, applied research, coalition building and policy change.