As two young women, ages 21 and 22, who spent most of our childhoods in the custody of the Department of Children and Families, we want to share our experiences aging out of the foster care system. Massachusetts is accessing far too few Department of Housing and Urban Development Foster Youth to Independence vouchers — since 2019, the state has received only 88 vouchers and used even fewer. We are living this reality.
There are limited placement options for older youth in DCF care, especially once they turn 18. It is not accurate to say youth opted out at 18 when neither the state nor federal government have provided them a place to live, and most in foster care haven’t been told that applying for a housing voucher is an option. The message we get is that we are not wanted.
If it were up to DCF, our cases would have been closed at 18 and, like so many other youth, we would have been homeless or worse. But we learned about our rights from More Than Words, a nonprofit in Waltham and Boston, where we are part of a team working to run a business while getting our lives on track. The staff helped us advocate to keep our DCF cases open. They supported both of us in finding housing through the nonprofit’s Single Room Occupancy program and worked with DCF to continue to provide some funding for us as we learn to live on our own.
But now what? Even young adults who have families and resources aren’t expected to be on their own without support at 18 or even 22. They are in college or they live at home. Yet the state and society seem to expect so many of us who have been in the system to somehow stand out there on our own without support. And then people wonder why there are so many young people experiencing homelessness.
Both of us recently learned about FYI vouchers from More Than Words; nobody from DCF told us about the program designed specifically for people like us. Our social workers didn’t even know the program existed. It feels like DCF and the government are very good at making sure we don’t have enough information. At 18, most youth don’t know what their rights are and that there are options. DCF simply releases youth like us out into the world on our own.
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This isn’t on the social workers who are working within a broken system. Why are the people in charge, the leaders in government, not putting resources into helping youth get these vouchers? How is it that only eight out of 120 housing authorities have accessed these vouchers? How is it that Massachusetts doesn’t make this a requirement so that thousands of youth have them instead of just 88 people?
We are both about to have our DCF cases closed at 22. Once we age out of the system, this voucher will be our best chance to receive support for housing. We are waiting on a new round of vouchers to be released by HUD, but the system is stuck. It can’t issue more vouchers until the first round is used by other youth — and there is no good system to help all those youth get the vouchers and find places to use them. Nobody appears to be in charge of managing it. We are fortunate to have the help of More Than Words, but HUD, DCF, and state housing authorities need to do their job and find a real solution.
Nationwide up to 50 percent of homeless youth are coming right out of the foster care system. If Massachusetts wants to solve youth homelessness, it should start here. We are in your custody. DCF staff are so quick to close cases and blame youth for not doing what they should, not following all the rules, not being easy enough to deal with. But where are legislators, DCF, lawyers, judges, and others responsible for supporting us as we find our way?
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Every youth in Massachusetts who is in DCF care should know about this voucher and every youth who needs one should get one. If society wants to stop youth homelessness, the state should stop making youth homeless. Massachusetts should start caring for the young people in its custody and creating real housing options for them even after they age out of the foster care system. And then when they do age out, the state must ensure they get FYI vouchers to support them as they prepare to be on their own. Then we’ll have a fighting chance.
Naishalys Negron and Emperis Mathews are members of the More Than Words nonprofit organization.
