LEHIGH VALLEY — Michael Rodriguez steps out of his Allentown home and looks up at a blanket of stars dotting the summer sky. At 2:30 a.m., it’s nearly pitch-dark on Wittier Drive, except for the glow of Pokemon Go from Rodriguez’s cellphone.
Insects buzz in the humid air as he climbs the driveway and begins his zig-zagging, 2-mile walk to Emmaus Avenue. Inside the houses and apartments he passes, other 19-year-olds are either sound asleep or just getting home after a night of fun with friends.
But Rodriguez doesn’t have time for late-night parties. It’s Tuesday and he has to be at Dunkin’ Donuts by 3:30 a.m. for the start of his shift. His incentive for keeping the grueling schedule is independence. In less than two years he’ll age out of foster care and be on his own, with no family to lean on. Before that happens, he’s trying to save enough money for a car and apartment.
“I think about things a lot differently now, since I’ve had to do so much for myself on my own,” he said.
Because he is on his own, Rodriguez is at a higher risk than most of his peers of becoming chronically homeless or involved in the criminal justice system, according to a recent survey of former foster children.
He hopes to buck that trend by staying in the system three years longer than most, until age 21. Lehigh County is helping him through a program designed to teach him the skills he needs to live independently.
The choice became possible in 2012 when Pennsylvania adopted a federal law allowing young people to remain in care until age 21, either with a foster family or through an independent living program such as the one Rodriguez is enrolled in.
A change in state legislation last year bolstered that support by enabling foster children to participate in after-school jobs and other activities without first getting permission from caseworkers or the court system.
The change was especially important for youth who are near adulthood and need to learn how to take care of themselves, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Max Baer said at the time.
“Everyday experiences help youth navigate childhood and adolescence and, ultimately, transition into adulthood. Many times, foster youth miss out on these rites of passage due to barriers in the system,” Baer said.
Financial challenges and mental health issues stack the deck against foster kids as they enter adulthood, the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, a St. Louis-based nonprofit, found in a 2013 study. In addition to needing affordable housing and jobs, many former foster kids must deal with the long-term consequences of having been abused and removed from their families.
Of the approximately 26,000 foster kids who age out of foster care each year, about 1 in 5 end up homeless after age 18, the study found. And about 25 percent became involved in the criminal justice system within two years of leaving foster care. The study also found that less than 2 percent graduated from college by age 25.
People who work in the foster care system say it’s not surprising that many kids falter on their own. After living in an environment where they are permitted to make few decisions, they suddenly are expected to make all their life decisions.
“The system has always been focused on keeping kids safe, which is important,” said Lisa Weingartner, who oversees the independent living program at Valley Youth House, a nonprofit that aids abused, neglected and homeless children, that is helping Rodriguez. “But for a 17- or 18-year-old who is getting ready to live on his own, it’s even more important to let them grow.”
Lehigh County’s Office of Children and Youth Services spends between $13,000 and $16,000 a day on out-of-home placement programs, including independent living programs and group homes. Since the law changed in 2012, allowing kids over 18 to stay in care, the agency has spent an additional $520,539, Children and Youth Executive Director Pam Buehrle said.
Much of these funds come from federal dollars that were made available to Pennsylvania child welfare agencies following passage of the law.
In Lehigh and Northampton counties, there are nearly 100 youths aged 16 to 21 in foster care. Across the state, about 700 aged out at 18 or older.
It’s not known how many of those young people were able to establish a home for themselves because the state doesn’t track them after they leave the foster system. Valley Youth House found a number of former foster children among the Lehigh Valley’s young homeless. In a count conducted in June, the nonprofit identified 72 homeless people between the ages of 18 and 24, and 14 percent of them said they had been in foster care.
The researchers believe that is a low estimate, based on a count last year in Philadelphia that showed that 44 percent of homeless young people in that city had previously been in foster care. Even the number of homeless youth is believed to be higher than estimated, considering that some don’t consider themselves homeless as long as they have a couch to sleep on.
Becoming self-sufficient
Rodriguez has been in foster care since age 13, when he ran away from an abusive home. After staying with several foster families, he entered the independent living program at 17.
Rodriguez shares a home with two roommates, ages 19 and 20. Although they’re supervised by Valley Youth House staff, they are responsible for taking care of their own daily needs. The agency provides Rodriguez with $40 a week for food, in the form of a grocery store gift card. Rodriguez and his roommates do their own shopping, cleaning and laundry.
They must work at least 80 hours a month or be in school or a job-training program to be eligible for the program.
The focus is on personal responsibility and making choices, said Nell Sokalski, a case manager with Lehigh County Office of Children and Youth who oversees teens in the process of aging out.
“It’s just enough of a safety net to allow them to learn,” Sokalski said.
The program has kept Rodriguez off the streets.
“When I was about to turn 18, I didn’t have anywhere else to go,” he said.
The program offered him an option and a safety net. But the fast track to independence can be exhausting, Rodriguez said. About five days a week, he gets up around 2 a.m. and tiptoes around so he won’t wake his roommates. From about 3:30 until noon he serves coffee and doughnuts to Lehigh Valley commuters, then walks home and falls back into bed for a few hours before rising to complete his share of the household chores.
Rodriguez also serves on the Lehigh County Youth Advisory Board, which meets monthly in Allentown and promotes changes in the child welfare system.
When he hears co-workers his age complain about their parents not giving them an allowance, Rodriguez can only shake his head. For them, turning 21 is about drinking and having fun. For him, it’s about going it alone. He admits he’s nervous about it.
“It’s definitely not going to be easy,” he said.
Valley Youth House’s independent living program is funded with state grants through Lehigh and Northampton counties’ offices of children and youth services. It’s open to 16- to- 21-year-olds who were in foster care or a group home in Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties. Kids involved with drugs or alcohol, or a risk to themselves or others due to mental health issues aren’t eligible.
Participation is voluntary, and some foster kids choose to strike out on their own before trying out a program.
That’s what Jasmine Quier, 22, of Bethlehem did. In foster care since age 4, she couldn’t wait to turn 18 and be out of the system.
“It’s like a clock was always ticking in the back of my mind,” she said.
After struggling financially for several months on her own, she re-entered care, something that wasn’t allowed before the law changed in 2012.
“I learned pretty quick that it’s a lot harder to support yourself than I thought,” she said.
While in an independent living program, Quier began taking college nursing classes and got a full-time job at an Amazon warehouse. She’s now on her own, sharing a Bethlehem apartment with her boyfriend and two dogs.
She said Valley Youth House’s independent living program made her more mature than her peers, especially when it comes to money.
“I can’t take the day off to go hang out in New York like some of my friends. I have rent and a car payment due,” she said.
So budget-conscious is she that during the recent heat wave, she chose to sweat it out as much as possible rather than turn on the air conditioning in her apartment.
For youths like Rodriguez and Quier, getting a job as a teen and keeping it into adulthood is an important step to success. In the Lehigh Valley, there is a need for more small businesses willing to hire foster youth, Weingartner said.
Since the new policies have been in effect less than a year, it’s too soon to tell if they will reverse the trend and keep former foster kids from becoming homeless, Weingarten said. But she’s already noticed a new-found confidence in the teens she works with. And that buoys her hope.
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