As a social worker for the city of Chesapeake, I have observed how severely at-risk the youth aging out of foster care are for homelessness, substance use, criminal convictions, domestic violence, and so much more. Individuals aging out of foster care experience such struggles due to the environments and conditions in which they were raised that was completely out of their control. It is the responsibility of the state and child welfare system to intervene in any way that they can, and this bill would support those efforts. The collaboration between the local Department of Social Services and the Local Housing Authorities would support positive outcomes within the child welfare of Virginia. Thank you, Olivia Berry, MSW

I am an intersectional professional working with teens and young adults with foster care experience. I myself Aged out of foster care, and fostered & adopted teens from foster care. I am an expert in what happens to young people as they transition out of foster care. In 2024, 533 individuals aged out of foster care in Virginia. 200 of them left at age 18, about a 100 were 19 or 20 and the last 200 were 21 years old. 40-50% of these individuals will be homeless within one year through no fault of their own. Landlords do not like to rent to young adults. The few Landlords willing to rent to such young people want them to have a good credit, great rental history or a co-signer. Many of these youth don't have a supportive adult in their lives to co-sign, they are too young for a good rental history or credit score. Most of them are not even making a livable wage in their entry level jobs. In fact, most of the youth are turning 18 with have never had a job, sat in the driver's seat or their own money to put into a bank account. The Federal John H Chafee law requires supportive services for the youth that transition of out of foster care until the age of 23 but most of the time when a former foster youth called for support from their old workers the workers don't have the capacity to help. Which leads to the negative outcomes reflected on the National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) seen below. Since the Foster Youth to Independence Housing Choice Voucher was announced in 2019 Virginia has struggled to utilize this valuable HUD Resources due to the conflicting jurisdictions of the public housing authorities and the Local Dept of Social Services. The Public Housing Authorities only service individuals living in their county/city, but 80% the youth in care live more than 5 miles from the county/city that holds custody of them. Virginia Dept of Social Services hired consultant to conduct research and offer recommendations as to how Virginia can offer these vouchers to all those who qualify, in the community they are connected to, and their recommendation was for VDSS to play an active role. Currently VDSS does not have the authority to enter into an MOU and the program will not allow the a housing authorities to enter into a MOU with 120 local DSS offices. According to the GuideHouse consultants Virginia could access an additional 800 housing vouchers if this bill were to pass. Currently Virginia has less that 200 vouchers allocated with less that 30% utilized. The passing of this bill can decrease the homeless population for former wards for the state significantly! From 60 to 1000, many of which are young adults with preschool aged children (24% of former foster youth aged 21 had a child in the last 2 years, 10% of 19 yr olds had a child in the last 2 years, 4% of the 17 year old had a child in the last 2 years). Please review the other relevant data this bill will have a positive effect on: 41% of 21 yrs old & 16% if 19 yr olds were homeless in the last year 64% of 21 yr olds & 62% of 19 yr olds have a High School Diploma or GED 7% receive public housing assistance 65% of 21 year olds & 52% of 19 year olds are employed 31% receive public food assistance 16% youth (14+) received life skills development services (90% is the national standard) For the last few years Advocates have been working to extend foster care to the age of 23. This bill will offer the same supports at a low cost.