Q&A
Coordination between DYCD and ACS for LGBTQ+ youth aging out of foster care
1:02:56
·
142 sec
Council Member Althea V. Stevens inquires about the coordination between DYCD and ACS to address the needs of LGBTQ+ youth aging out of foster care. Representatives from both agencies explain their processes and policies.
- DYCD attempts to connect youth back to ACS's unit for older youth who have aged out of the system
- ACS Commissioner Dannhauser emphasizes that they do not discharge young people to homelessness
- ACS has been increasing housing options for youth aging out of care, including city FHEPS, section 8, emergency housing vouchers, and supportive housing
- Young people who sign themselves out of care at 18-19 can return to foster care and remain eligible for housing supports
Althea V. Stevens
1:02:56
Okay.
1:02:56
Great.
1:02:57
Alright.
1:02:57
So So given that LGBTQ plus youth, aging out of foster care system is just disproportionate with their placements often.
1:03:09
Enter the homeless runaway youth homeless and run away youth system.
1:03:14
How does the DUICD coordinate with the ACS to address the unique needs of those young people and what specific supports are in place to ensure access to essential services?
UNKNOWN
1:03:27
If if a youth ages out of ACS care and ends up in our system after, I guess, their discharge options failed is what I'm hearing.
1:03:38
How do we how do we work with them?
1:03:39
But we try to connect them back to ACS.
1:03:42
ACS has a unit that specifically designated for older youth that have aged out of the system.
1:03:49
So if they're still eligible to come back into the system, our first option is to connect them to that unit.
1:03:54
To make sure that they could explore all of the options that's available to them through force secure.
Jess Dannhauser
1:04:00
Could I add chair that we do not discharge young people to homelessness.
1:04:05
There are And we've been reducing the number of young people aging out of care, and we're focused on them as you were saying earlier.
1:04:13
So we've been increasing housing options.
1:04:15
So, young people who age out of care at 21, Most of them actually stay past the 21st birthday as we're working on housing options, whether that city peps or section 8.
1:04:26
Some of the emergency housing vouchers or nacho or supportive housing.
1:04:30
There is a group of young people, less than half of the young people who quote unquote age out, who signed themselves out of care at 18 19, and they they might be going to a family that, you know, they they think is appropriate.
1:04:46
If that disrupts and they end up in the RHY system, that is possible.
1:04:50
That is where we they can come back into foster care, and they remain eligible for all of the housing supports.
1:04:57
So if they're if that disrupts before 21, those are young.
1:05:00
We're trying to reduce young people who leave us at 18, 19 to unstable on their own volition.
1:05:07
And it's coming down, but that's a population I worry about all the time.
1:05:11
And so that's why we allow them back into care.
1:05:14
But I think that's some of the population that we that we see at Arch why.
