Aging out of Foster Care

A growing problem: Fresh out of foster care and homeless, By Carol Smith, October 18, 2010, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “Fueled by high unemployment and high housing costs, shelters for young adults in King County are turning people away in record numbers. The legacy of a failing foster care system and young people stranded by the crack epidemic of the late 1980s, the record demand experienced by these shelters illustrates a new face of homelessness, and comes even as the number of beds for young adults has been expanding. Homeless families are overwhelmingly headed by young women with young children. Yet the group driving this trend — young adults ages 18-24 — is generally under-counted and under-represented when solutions are envisioned. Relatively few resources are being directed to prevent them from producing new generations of homeless families…”