As the average New York City rent soars past $3,000 for a cramped studio, the ranks of homeless youth continue to grow. Last year, a city hall report found a nearly 50% increase in young adults seeking shelter care and drop-in services.
Young adults in the foster care system are particularly vulnerable. Without the structure and guidance of family, they struggle to stay in school, find jobs, and secure stable housing. Even when they’re eligible for state and federal entitlement programs, too often there’s no one to guide them to these lifeline benefits.
A recently opened affordable housing complex in the heart of Harlem offers a stand-out, gleaming alternative for youth aging out of foster care — providing not only otherwise unaffordable amenities, but a place to call home, alongside on-site social services. Offerings in the towering, 17-story apartment building represent the most ambitious project to date for The New York Foundling, a child welfare nonprofit with a long history of serving this population.
Built by a group of private developers with funding from the state, the new building features a fitness center and outdoor rooftop terrace overlooking stunning views of the city skyline. Subsidized rents in the 51-unit building range from roughly $650 for a studio to $1,500 for a two-bedroom.
Seventy residents aged 18 through 25 have since moved in. They were selected from more than 500 applicants based on income levels, whether they are full-time college students, and assessments of their goals, daily activities and ability to live independently. The building also has on-site support services including college coaching, mentoring, counseling and therapy and job training.
“We’re able to provide the type of support that young people need and deserve,” CEO Melanie Hartzog said.
Assistance connecting tenants to social services and subsidies they might be eligible for is also available. The intention is to help set them up for success so they will be able to afford market-rate or other affordable housing by the age of 26.
At the grand opening for the Harlem housing complex in May, Venessa Riley, a 23-year-old former foster youth who recently graduated from Queens College with a degree in psychology, gave reporters a tour of her studio apartment. It was a bright modern space with high-end kitchen fixtures, chic pink and white furniture and a playpen for her small puppy.
Riley said growing up in foster care often made her worry where she would end up. The Harlem apartment afforded her a place of her own to host Thanksgiving dinners and sleepovers with friends — activities other young adults may take for granted.
“Having this housing means having a safe place to lay my head,” Riley said.
New York is not alone in its effort to provide supportive housing for transition-age foster youth. Similar models exist across the country, fueled by widespread recognition that youth leaving government custody need more than keys to an apartment. They need accessible help navigating independent daily life as well.
Allegheny County in Pennsylvania opened Uptown Lofts in 2013 — a first-of-its-kind building in the state, complete with case managers, life skills and finance classes. In California, John Burton Advocates for Youth has led the way on such offerings, providing housing accompanied by job training, educational support and counseling.
Last week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also pledged an assist. The governor announced a $36 million award to five projects across the state that will create 249 additional supportive housing units, among them programs serving youth aging out of foster care.
In New York City, The Foundling is one of several nonprofits working with the local government on such services. They include the Children’s Village, which runs The Eliza in upper Manhattan’s Inwood’s neighborhood. That 174-unit housing complex opened in June and provides foster youth with an onsite library and STEM learning.
Advocates say these programs meet only a fraction of the need. Out of the roughly 1,000 young adults who age out of foster care at age 21 in New York City each year, city and national data have shown that more than 20% risk homelessness within six years.
The Harlem housing complex on W. 126th Street is the Foundling’s second similar development. Its first was a residential building in Brownsville that opened in 2022. Of the 160 units, 36 are reserved for young adults aging out of foster care and New Yorkers with developmental disabilities.
Bonnie Langer, who oversees education and housing services for the organization, said she has seen youth leave programs intended to support their college goals, simply because they couldn’t afford rent. Others only found out about their affordable housing options after the eligibility window had closed. That’s where on-site case managers can assist, Langer said. “By expanding those opportunities, we’ve really been able to give youth a larger voice in making those decisions.”
The Foundling’s efforts to offer such support to youth aging out of foster care extends into other boroughs as well.
The nonprofit has additional affordable housing programs in Brooklyn, paid for through city and state funding. Those programs offer 33 units in a variety of apartment buildings that currently serve 40 young people who have aged out of the foster care system or experienced homelessness. The Foundling reports that for each of the last four years, 95% of the residents here successfully transitioned to living independently in market-rate or or subsidized housing within two years.
In July, the nonprofit expanded its mother-child program and moved 18 parents in foster care who are between 14 and 21 years old into two buildings in Parkchester, a Bronx neighborhood.
One of the residents, Safia Dixon, is an immigrant from Jamaica. She became pregnant at 13, when she entered foster care in New York. Her first placement was a group home, where she described feeling locked up in a facility with other unknown children.
“It was the most horrible experience,” said Dixon, now 16. “You can’t have contact with outsiders, you can’t have electronics.”
It took five months for the Administration for Children’s Services to find a program where she could live with her infant, she said. Dixon felt more comfortable there, and made connections with the other residents. But the home eventually shut down.
Now, she has her own space to live with her 1-year-old daughter, Aamira. She shares the three-bedroom apartment with two roommates who are also part of the program. There’s an in-unit washer and dryer, walls covered with Dixon’s honor roll certificates, LED lights, birthday cards and snapshots of her toddler.
The supportive housing complex provides 24-hour, on-site child care, with staff who take care of Aamira while Dixon leaves early for school, or when she needs time for regular teenage activities like taking her first driver’s permit test. The caretakers log and monitor everything that happens in the apartments, which Dixon said helps her trust them with her child, much more than she would with a foster parent.
There are still rules in the apartment — a curfew and no cooking at night — but for Dixon, her room is where she feels independent and at home, and above all, a safe space to raise her daughter.
Dixon is eager to pursue a career as a veterinarian or a labor delivery nurse someday. Having stable housing will help. Last year, the Foundling reports, the majority of the girls in the program retained custody of their children, were able to continue high school or receive their GED, or transition to independent living.
“It’s a good thing to have your own area where you always feel comfortable,” she said, “with somewhere to run to if you don’t want to be in an uncomfortable situation.”
