Support Foster Youth Secure Safe, Affordable and Sustainable Housing

Affordable housing and homelessness

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit)

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

Youth aging out of foster care at 18 have not been adequately prepared and lack the resources, life skills and networks needed to successfully transition to adulthood. One in five former foster report expe­ri­enc­ing home­less­ness between ages 17-19 and 29% experience homelessness between ages 19-21, while 20% are incarcerated and just 57% report being employed by age 21. Another alarming statistic is 33% becom­e par­ents by the age of 21. (Annie E. Casey Foundation).
Every year in LA County, there are over 1,000 young adults aging out of foster care. The most recent census of unhoused Angelenos found that LA County had 3,718 homeless transition-age youth, and around 50% of those leaving foster care may experience homelessness or housing instability. (LA County Board of Supervisors AGN 193082 July 2024)
LA County adds and eliminates housing programs, vouchers and subsidies. This makes it extremely difficult to navigate the housing landscape - especially while being unhoused.

Stepping Forward LA officially launched our housing initiative in January 2024. Since then, we have helped 120 former foster young adults find housing, programs, vouchers and subsidies. Roughly 1/3 of the young adults we support are under the age of 24, another 1/3 are families - primarily single moms - and the remaining 1/3 are age 25+. We currently have 102 active housing candidates.
We work with each young adult and help them create a plan that aligns with their needs, income, location of housing preferred, credit scores, etc. Many of our housing candidates are unhoused, living in their cars, in unhealthy relationships and feel alone, scared and overwhelmed.
In the past year, only 12% of the young adults we have helped secure housing had enough funding to pay for their first month's rent, moving costs, security deposit and utilities. Due to the lack of necessary funding, many young adults lost their opportunity to move forward with their apartment.
We are asking for $75,000 to have financial support for the young adults. We can provide this support in a timely manner.
We tend to provide support with security deposits because that allows them to leverage your investment for future housing opportunities. This funding allows them to move in and get a roof over their heads so they can focus on thriving, and not just surviving.
At this critical juncture in their lives, your investment provides the support needed to successfully transition to adulthood.

Without support, these young adults will struggle to find their way in the world and homelessness, unemployment and incarceration will be a recurring theme in their lives.
This timely investment in the lives of former foster youth allows them to be productive members of society. We can have a generation of foster youth aging out of the system attending college, working, feeling confident and financially contributing to their neighborhoods, schools, businesses and more equipped to raise healthy, happy children.
They will be able to leave their childhood experience of foster care in the past and break the generational cycle of poverty, system-involvement, unhealthy relationships and making poor choices to survive.
Foster youth with lived experience will also be advocates for their peers and helping them through this difficulty as well.
All of this can be achieved by investing in these amazing young adults as they gain stability in multiple facets of their lives.