Right Start

Covenant House Alaska

ANCHORAGE - It's no surprise that the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation - the state's public housing authority - is an innovator. Given the state's unique climates, circumstances and challenges, it's got to be.

So, it's also no surprised that when Alaska Housing Finance heard about HUD Secretary Carson's innovative Foster Youth to Independence initiative to expand housing and services to young people aging-out of foster care on their 19th birthday, it jumped at the chance to be one of FYI's first participants. "I reached-out to them the day after the Secretary's announcement," recalled Colleen Bickford, HUD Alaska's Field Office Director. "Within a matter of days, they let us know they'd be applying."

It is estimated that more than 20,000 young people age-out of foster care each year including, says the National Youth in Transition Data Base, about 60 in Alaska, more than half - 53 percent - of whom likely will experience homelessness at some time in their next three years, almost twice the national average.

In November 2019 Alaska Housing was approved as one of the first eleven FYI programs in the nation. The $181,000 in annual HUD funding will provide 21 tenant protection rental vouchers and supportive services through a partnership formed by the Alaska Department of Health and Human Services, Covenant House Alaska and Dream Catchers to assist young people aging-out of foster care and who are at risk of experiencing homelessness.

And the risks involve much more than the challenge of having to find a warm, safe place to sleep outdoors at night. In 2018, Covenant House Alaska reports, (https://covenanthouseak.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2018-Impact-report.pdf) it served more than 800 young people, some 80 percent of whom came directly from or had spent time in foster care. Twenty-eight percent of those it served had been the victims of sexual trafficking, 46 percent had sexually abused, 66 percent had not finished high school and 26 percent were pregnant or already had children.

"Youth in volatile housing situations are among our state's most vulnerable," said Bryan Butcher, CEO and Executive Director of Alaska Housing Finance. "This funding will allow young adults to move into safe and stable housing, and we will work with our partners to provide mentorship to the young people that will promote healthy decision-making and lead to a brighter future."

"Secretary Carson has said homelessness is no way for young people to start their adulthood," Bickford noted. "Thanks to this FYI partnership, young Alaskans aging-out of foster care won't have to."

The Alaska Housing Finance Corporation may be among the very first FYI programs to be approved. It likely won't be the last. Secretary Carson's FYI initiative marks a major expansion of HUD's efforts to prevent homelessness among aging-out of foster care and aging-in to adulthood.

For years HUD has provided funding to housing authorities under what's called the Family Unification Voucher program which, like FYI, provides rental assistance to eligible families that are experiencing or are at risk of separation because of their housing instability. But only 300 or the nation's 3,200 authorities, however, actually have won Family Unification Program funding from HUD.

FYI opens the door to such resources for those authorities that don't have a FUP program as long as they operate a Housing Choice Voucher program, entire into a partnership agreement with a local child welfare organization and HUD-funded Continuum of Care and agrees to accept referrals from them.

To start the process all authorities is knock on FYI's door. The future of some 20,000 19-year-olds this year depend on whether they do. Let's give them the right start on adulthood they deserve.

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