Yesterday was a day. I don’t have an adjective for it. The only thing that keeps coming to mind is the opening line of Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities”:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”
I spent the day driving around with the most amazing young woman. She’s prescient, poetic, observant and annoyingly good at everything — math, navigation, painting, knitting, writing, you name it. I witnessed her taking a giant step toward a stable future, but that view offered a harrowing glimpse into her past.
After entering foster care at age 14, she aged out, completely alone. She has been struggling with homelessness ever since — nearly three full years. It has taken its toll, but she’s also used the experience to sharpen her intellect. She misses nothing. She collects experiences in a mental curio cabinet, which is easy to do if you have a photographic memory like she does.
While homeless, she has been working, applying to colleges, and helping usher the Fostering Stable Housing Opportunities Amendments Act of the District of Columbia into law. The legislation is identical to the federal bill by the same name that passed in 2020, with one notable exception: it compels child welfare professionals to act. So now, caseworkers in D.C. are required to notify foster youth about the Foster Youth to Independence Initiative (FYI), an “on demand” distribution mechanism for federal housing vouchers that has been on the books since 2019.
The FYI — which was conceived of by current and former foster youth, who then worked with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to make it a reality — provides three years’ access to vouchers that young people can use as a platform for economic self-sufficiency. These vouchers are intended to be synchronized with emancipation from extended foster care.
When timed properly as a part of a person’s transition plan, the FYI can help eliminate the gaps through which youth could fall into homelessness or trafficking. If interested, a young person can earn an additional two years of subsidy (for a total of five years) by working, going to school, and/or enrolling in HUD’s Family Self-Sufficiency Program.
Over 3,500 young people have accessed their own apartments through the FYI since it went into effect, largely due to the swift action of housing and child welfare professionals throughout the country who embraced the program from the start. But in many places, antiquated systems and traditions are still unnecessarily consigning untold numbers of young adults to homelessness.
Thanks in part to this young woman’s tenacity, D.C. is no longer among them. And though it took three years, the District’s child welfare agency finally agreed to refer her to the District of Columbia Housing Authority. Just two weeks later, she got a voucher.
Voucher in hand, she finally felt comfortable starting the process of collecting her things in preparation for the big move into her own place. She asked me to help. I was honored. And off we went.
Cue Dickens. On the one hand it was exhilarating, because she is moving on and starting anew. On the other, it was a window into the soul of America’s foster care system. This young woman’s belongings are scattered throughout three states in a random amalgamation of foster homes and the apartments and cars of people she barely knows — people she met while exchanging favors for a place to live.
We drove miles and miles on meandering exurban roads in one state. We tested my parallel parking skills in another, maneuvering narrow city streets constructed before cars were invented. At three of our destinations, we struck out entirely. No one was home. Thankfully, at four other places we connected with folks who happily provided access to her things. Everyone she caught up with was happy to see her and wished her well.
We found some of her keepsakes in an unlocked, abandoned-looking basement apartment where no one was home. Predictably, someone had rifled through her belongings. Watching her gather the mental strength to put the pieces of her life back together without being crushed by the gravity of the circumstances was painful and inspiring.
In my own mind, I was brushing away layers of resentment for the years she’ll never get back, and for the people who failed to help her access an FYI voucher when she aged out in 2019. My disappointment with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its army of paid contractors whose unwillingness to match HUD’s eagerness to spread the word about FYI endures. Further delays in acknowledging this solution — and implementing it — are damaging in real, concrete terms that many of us cannot begin to understand. And yesterday, I had a clear glimpse at the personal cost to young people.
We owe it to youth, to foster parents, to the community to tap this youth-built platform for economic success. Moreover, HHS has a responsibility to promote this tool to the vast network of capable and dedicated front-line professionals in public agencies who are entrusted with the sobering task of preparing youth for independence. Any further delays in FYI implementation are unforgivable folly.
As that patina started to form, I wiped it away so I could absorb this time with my brilliant traveling companion. But eventually, my mind drifted back to Dickens once more:
“It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.”
The good news is the FYI is codified in federal law and funded, thanks to the support of Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). Knowing that should give everyone who cares about ending homelessness the confidence they need to fold the FYI into the growing list of housing options for youth leaving care, just the way the alumni authors of the FYI intended.
For my part, my organization will continue to work with HUD to blanket the country with information about the FYI. And all are welcome to join us in this effort. Together, we can shorten and ease the trip to success for trailblazers like my steadfast traveling companion.
For her, though, there are still more pieces to gather up. And so, tomorrow, we’ll be back on the road.
