Foster youth get a hand from year-old housing program

For the last year and a half, Pete Burns has lived in a Clay Street apartment with the help of Places — a local nonprofit that provides emancipated foster care youth with rent subsidies, furniture and budgeting skills for living on their own. Jorgen Gulliksen/Register | Buy photos

Monday, February 04, 2008

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By DAVID RYAN
Napa Valley Register

Napan Pete Burns knows surfing. Surfing couches.

A couple of years ago, the 20-year-old former foster kid fell into a common post-foster care trap of too many real world requirements hitting at a time when he had too little education, few job prospects and no reliable transportation.

“I didn’t think I was going to be able to go to college,” he said of 10 months spent sleeping on friends’ couches and of apartment rentals that fell through because roommates didn’t keep up their end of the bargain. “Now I’m thinking of UC Berkeley.”

Burns is a case study in how a year-old housing program for former foster care youth is making a difference in the lives of young Napans. The program, Places, provides housing subsidies and trains former foster care youth in something the foster care system is known for not providing — stability. It subsidizes rent, but encourages young people to save money and pay their own way.

That lets former foster youth sample some of the real world comforts other young people get from their parents.

“I’d been in foster care a year and a half and I moved three times,” Burns said.

Although Burns considers himself lucky that he had only a brief stint in foster care, it was enough to throw him off track in his late teens, giving him few prospects for post-secondary education. At his lowest point, he had to sell his car to pay his rent. Then he heard about Places through another foster care program, VOICES, or Voice Our Independant Choices for Emancipation Support.

VOICES matches emancipated foster youth with programs that help them get their footing in the real world.

With heavily subsidized rent at first, Burns was able to use his job to get a car. With reliable transportation he was able to establish himself as a full-time student at Napa Valley College while working at the same time.

“I’ve been able to really just settle down,” he said.

Studies have shown that foster care youth often turn into adults with unstable lives, some so unstable that the youth join the ranks of the homeless.

Tes Salvatore, Places program director, said the parent agency of the program, the San Francisco-based Progress Foundation, is accustomed to providing transitional housing for the mentally ill in San Francisco.

“We have a lot of homes through there where we promote social rehabilitation for individuals due to (their) mental illness,” she said. “In Napa here, we’ve expanded out to serving foster youth and serving transitional-aged youth.”

Salvatore said Places sets up rental contracts through landlords in town, and the landlords appreciate the program because rents are guaranteed. On the other end, it provides $50 grocery gift cards to foster youth who pay their rent on time. It also can help set up savings accounts for foster youth.

There can be as many as 100 foster youth in Napa at any given time. Places has helped about a dozen foster care youth in its first year. It celebrated its first anniversary last month. With state funding guaranteed even through this year of state budget difficulties, Places is looking forward to helping more young people in year two.

“We’re getting very positive feedback,” Salvatore said. “Napa County was one of the first to get on board of this (state housing) program, and within one year’s time 40 counties are trying to get on board with it, so it’s really blossoming.”

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