Dajonna was placed into foster care when she was 6 months old. Growing up, she lived in several group homes.  She became pregnant at age 15 and after graduating from high school, she stayed mostly with friends. “I was just moving from house to house,” she says. At age 22, Dajonna was helped by Beyond Emancipation to move into its transitional home in East Oakland with her daughter. Along with coaching and other services, the home offers moms exiting foster care the time to build new lives for themselves and their kids. “This is the most stable I have ever been,” says Dajonna. She now works as a security guard in San Francisco and has found childcare that accommodates her schedule.

Dajonna’s story is not unique. Many opportunity youth are unstably housed. Without basic needs like housing, food, transportation, and health care being met, it is difficult for opportunity youth to focus on completing their education or finding a job. The issue is further compounded for young parents who must find housing that accepts children and figure out how to juggle childcare with school or work.

Photo of Dajonna and her daughter courtesy of Beyond Emancipation

Most young adults have family or social networks that they can rely on when they need a safety net, particularly when they are first transitioning to living independently. However, unlike many of their peers who continue to live with or receive financial assistance from their parents, these youth often struggle just to keep themselves housed according to a study in the American Journal of Public Health.

In the Bay Area, the challenge of securing affordable housing is extreme. To afford a 1-bedroom apartment without being cost burdened demands an hourly wage of between $36/hour for the Oakland area and up to $48/hour in San Francisco. As such, youth homelessness in the Bay Area is a serious issue. A recent count showed youth homelessness in Santa Clara County surged by 185 percent from 2015 - 2017 and 1,300 young people will find themselves on the streets of San Francisco tonight.

Youth aging out of foster care are at especially high risk of homelessness. While some youth can move to the outskirts of the Bay Area for more affordable rent, transportation becomes an issue as many jobs are located closer to metropolitan areas.  In Santa Clara, 50% of opportunity youth say transportation is a major challenge, 60% say they need support with housing, and 30% say lack of childcare is delaying their ability to complete education, according to local expert Joe Herrity of Kids in Common.

Battery Powered's homelessness theme provides a deeper dive on the challenges of unstable housing and possible solutions here.

It will take resources beyond Battery Powered to solve the housing crisis or expand regional transportation. However, philanthropic support can be used to help opportunity youth meet their basic needs. For example, philanthropic dollars can fund one-time costs to enhance the number of beds or improve the quality of services offered at a shelter; provide transportation vouchers; support housing advocacy; or help agencies pilot new programs that require start-up funding.

We are proposing three types of investments in this sub-theme:

Support a continuum of housing options 

Connecting youth to housing is integral to preventing youth homelessness. This is particularly important when youth transition out of the foster care system or juvenile hall. Project Independence, a project of Abode Services, is one example of a “housing plus” services model that helps youth who have aged out of the foster care system and their children by providing affordable housing linked to comprehensive support services. Another approach, called Host Housing, serves foster youth ages 18 to 21 with an adult who provides a room in their home as well as a supportive, mentor-like relationship.

Fund coordination

Issues usually require a large network of agencies to come together to address the needs. Yet all too often they are not coordinating with each other and youth suffer. For example, although the juvenile justice and foster care systems are both county-run and part of the same larger agency, these departments often do not coordinate even when serving the same individual. One agency we interviewed told a story about a foster youth on probation who had an ankle bracelet and was enrolled in a workforce program one mile outside his allowed area. Despite attempts to get permission to continue, the issue could not get resolved and he had to the leave the workforce program he was thriving in.

Some counties in the Bay Area have created Collective Impact groups to coordinate support for opportunity youth across agencies and service providers. The Opportunity Youth Partnership of Santa Clara is one example that is convening public systems, community-based organizations, education providers, elected officials, and the business community to better coordinate support and resources across Santa Clara County. Alameda, San Mateo, San Francisco, and Marin counties have similar efforts.

Another example is the Next Steps Collaborative, a coalition of four Alameda County organizations working together to support youth in need of housing. By coordinating one entry point, the program intends to make it easier for a young person to navigate county bureaucracy to find housing.

Photo Courtesy of Beyond Emancipation

Leverage public funding

Philanthropy can be used strategically to draw down existing public funding streams. One example: Fresh Success, a model being piloted in three community colleges in Contra Costa County, based on a successful program in Washington State. The program allows young adults who are enrolled in the CalFresh (food stamps) program and are attending school or job training, access to extra resources. By enrolling in Fresh Success, youth can access tuition assistance, transportation vouchers, tutoring, textbook reimbursement, dependent care, and other resources.

The program requires a 50/50 match from the community college, which makes the initial investment difficult. Over time, however, the revenue generated can offset expenses and the program can be run cost-effectively. Philanthropic dollars can be used to incentivize agencies to start Fresh Success.