Rapid Response: Addressing Housing Security for Former Foster Youth

Housing and Homelessness

County of Los Angeles

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

Transition-age and former foster youth living in LA County are forced to survive at the intersection of our country's most pressing social issues. These include homelessness, food insecurity, human trafficking, environmental injustice, and more. Despite the fact that almost 100% of LA County's high school foster youth report dreams of attending college, only 50% will graduate with a diploma and only 3% will graduate from college. Upon aging out, one out of every five local foster youth becomes instantly homeless. Within 18 months, more than 50% of aged-out youth will be homeless or incarcerated. Disturbingly, over 50% of the current homeless population in LA County report having spent time in the foster care system. Foster Love is comprised of motivated individuals who have lived experience in the child welfare system, allowing them to provide trauma-informed services with compassion, patience, and understanding.

The aforementioned challenges and risks facing transition-age foster youth are the result of repeated systemic failures that significantly decrease a foster child's access to and knowledge of community resources. Born in 2020, the Rapid Response program is designed to help this historically underserved demographic plagued by these challenges by providing them with emotional support, stable housing, utility assistance, tuition relief, and other crucial basic need resources for lifelong success. Rapid Response targets aged-out foster youth between the ages of 17 and 26 who live in LA County and meet the predetermined criteria for support. BIPOC continue to be overrepresented in the child welfare system. In LA County specifically, approximately 64% of participants are youth of color, 70% identify as female/non-binary, and 70% are student parents fighting against the cyclical nature of the child welfare system. The following are the focus areas of the Rapid Response program: Imminent housing loss, emergency food resources, technology access, academic assistance, travel/relocation, and other individual needs. To implement this program, Foster Love has partnered with dozens of campus-based foster youth programs, allied non-profit organizations, and foster care agencies in LA County. These entities all go through the same process to become referring partners for the Rapid Response program, streamlining an at-risk youth's access to critical support.

Of all the jurisdictions served by Foster Love's Rapid Response program, Los Angeles County consistently reports the highest rates of need. The number of homeless transition-age youth in LA County has increased by 4% since 2020. This figure has been steadily increasing due to the persistent housing crisis, inflation, defunded community programs, and lack of consistent support for systems-impacted youth. By increasing our capacity to serve at-risk transition-age youth in LA County, Foster Love's Rapid Response program will break the cycle of homelessness and systemic recidivism for current and future populations. By meeting the basic needs of at-risk transition-age youth, we ensure their stability and well-being. Through targeted interventions, personalized care plans, and connections to vital community resources, we will empower these young individuals to secure stable housing, pursue education and employment opportunities, and develop the necessary life skills for independent living.

Foster Love consistently evaluates the effectiveness of the Rapid Response program internally using a variety of tools and methods to ensure successful outcomes and allow Foster Love to enact strategic programmatic improvements when necessary. These methods include the following: 1) Written and video testimonials from foster youth, 2) Partner satisfaction surveys, 3) Impact reports, 4) Grant reports, and 5) Data tracking. Data collected in bi-weekly intervals: Amount of money expended, number of youth served, breakdown of referrals received by providers. Data collected in monthly intervals: Breakdown of the type of financial support disseminated, percentage of requests that were urgent vs. non-urgent Foster Love collects information about the youth served based on the information collected during the needs assessment as well as the follow-up quarterly. Additionally, we take quarterly measurements of any barriers or challenges that have emerged during the grant period.