Former Foster Youth Are Too Often Left With Nowhere to Go. This Foundation Is Trying to Help
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Homeless encampment in los angeles. mikeledray/shutterstock
In Los Angeles County, foster kids entering adulthood generally confront this rocky transition period without the guidance and support of parents — or often any other adults who have been in their lives on a consistent basis. While all young people could probably use some help navigating the many issues that characterize early adulthood, foster youth are often left to fend more or less for themselves.
Foster youth advocates pushed for and won an increase in the upper age limit for foster care in California, and just this summer, an increase in the stipend kids aged 18 to 21 get for housing and other living expenses. Still, more work is required at the state and county levels to better serve this population embarking on independent lives. In the meantime, some philanthropic funders and nonprofits are working to fill what they say is a glaring gap in care.
One such funder is the Anthony & Jeanne Pritzker Family Foundation (AJPFF), which is deeply embedded in the Los Angeles community. Established by Anthony Pritzker and his wife, Jeanne, in 2002, it is one of a handful of independent foundations run by members of the Pritzker family. A descendant of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, patriarch Jay Pritzker made his money in part by founding the Hyatt hotel corporation. When he died in 1999, his fortune was split among 11 family members, leading to a “maze” of family foundations, as we’ve written.
AJPFF gives to a range of local issues, including child welfare, education, the environment, health, the arts, Jewish life and youth athletics. The foundation did some grantmaking in the foster care space in its early years, then homed in on this population as a funding priority in 2012 when it hired its first executive director. In 2014, AJPFF launched the Pritzker Foster Care Initiative to support transition-age foster youth.
A term used to describe older teens and twenty-somethings transitioning from standard foster care into fledgling adulthood, “transition-age” generally refers to young people aged 16 to 26 — or even up to 30 at AJPFF — many of whom are moving into this next stage alone.
“The current outcomes for youth exiting foster care are just unacceptable in terms of experience with homelessness, low graduation rates, low college enrollment, involvement in the juvenile justice system, early parenting — all the things that make it hard for a young person to become an independent, self-sufficient, thriving adult,” said AJPFF Director Lauren Nichols.
Through the Pritzker Foster Care Initiative, AJPFF funds between 40 and 70 organizations at any given time in an annual cycle, mostly in L.A. County, focusing mainly on this population. It is an invitation-only funder and generally identifies potential grantees through current partners or its own community engagement.
The role of philanthropy in supporting transition-age youth in LA
I first learned about AJPFF through one of its grantees focused on transition-age foster youth, the RightWay Foundation. Founded by Franco Vega, an Angeleno who himself was orphaned at 15 and then supervised/raised by the L.A. County probation department, RightWay serves some of the most challenged, and challenging, transition-age foster youth. AJPFF staff heard about Vega through word of mouth, went to visit his organization in South L.A., and has now given just under $800,000 to RightWay since 2012. “His dogged focus on the hardest-to-serve kids was something we really wanted to encourage,” said Nichols.
RightWay’s signature program is its 32-hour "Operation Emancipation," which helps transition-age youth with everything from stress management and emotional regulation to developing good communication and problem-solving skills. Program graduates are eligible for one-on-one therapy, case management, job coaching, employment opportunities — and more recently, housing. Vega describes Operation Emancipation as a “trauma-informed and healing-centered employment readiness workshop.”
Vega gets directly involved in the lives of the youth RightWay serves, including by quickly responding to needs that arise. During the pandemic, for example, he scrambled to find a way to house youth who had been couch-surfing with friends and suddenly faced being turned out onto the streets. He had already created short-term housing in 2017 for a group of young men who otherwise would not have had anywhere to live, a pilot program that AJPFF had supported. During the pandemic, he got back into the business of housing, but more long term.
“He’s not a housing provider; that’s not the heart of his work. He evolved his program to include housing because of what the needs are. That’s what he's heard young people say they need,” said Nichols.
RightWay currently houses about 50 former foster youth in eight buildings across the city, acting as the cosigner, guarantor and proxy parent type and subsidizing up to $600 a month in rent for each person. It also provides a variety of types of supervision and support, depending on what the youth need.
No parents = no down-payment: the challenges facing transition-age foster youth
Finding housing in L.A. is no easy feat, even if you have steady income and good references. (I have a friend who is nearly 60 and had to ask her 80-something mother to cosign on an apartment in the Marina recently because the landlord wanted more security than her freelance career provided.) For former foster youth, renting an apartment can be impossible. While exact figures vary, some 30% or more of foster youth end up homeless at some point in their early adulthood. Being homeless for even one day has been shown to increase the chances of chronic homelessness. For kids in institutional settings or group “homes,” the percentage who become homeless is even higher.
Once they turn 18, foster youth in California are basically booted out of whatever placement they’re in. (Or else this happens at 21 if they elect to stay in extended foster care, and their caregiver is willing to keep them that long.) After exiting a foster home or group facility, former foster youth do have some money; they currently receive just under $1,200/month for housing and other expenses and have access to supportive services. But $1,200 a month does not go far in L.A. (or in other expensive cities and regions in the state).
While foster youth advocates recently won an increase in this monthly stipend that will reach youth in 2025, a lot more goes into living on your own than just being able to meet the rent — such as having someone cosign for an apartment, which many foster youth lack. They also may have no credit history and no way to round up first and last month’s rent. The lack of consistent guidance from a caring adult can mean they are ill-prepared for the multiple responsibilities that come with living alone.
“They don’t know how to turn on the electricity or gas. No one showed them that. Traditional kids, you talk about credit. Our kids don’t get that,” said Vega. “It’s like they’re giving our kids Tesla keys but not the Tesla. It sets our kids up for failure.”
RightWay works to address these issues, spending $900,000 a year on rent in a variety of building types, then subletting those units or rooms to the youth in its program. With no government funding, RightWay relies solely on grants from foundations and individuals to do its work. In addition to AJPFF, funders include the L.A.-based Angell Foundation, created to expand on the philanthropic giving of David and Lynn Angell (who were killed while traveling in one of the planes hijacked by al-Qaeda on 9/11), as well as the Hilton Foundation and the California Community Foundation.
Pritzker’s funding of Vega’s hands-on, from-the-hip help is a great example of how philanthropy can support innovative, experimental leaders working on some of the hardest challenges, and in doing so, pave the way for government to eventually take over.
“Franco is very entrepreneurial, creative, and opportunistic, in the best way. He’s the kind of leader who can do things differently, think outside the box,” said Nichols.
Vega hopes to expand RightWay to house more kids. He also wants the county or state to step in. “Philanthropy is the blessing, the hero or shining light. On the flip side, I’ve been told many times, ‘Franco, we’ve been funding you a long time. The government’s got to pick up the ball,'" he said. "This is a government problem. These are government kids. The government should be funding RightWay Foundation 100% or creating a specialized unit or agency that takes over for this age group and helps find these kids apartments. The county is the parents; they need to do the parenting thing.”
