Homeless kids often come from foster care

At least one-third of the kids who come to Covenant House are products of the foster care system.

Every year, 20,000 kids in foster care are left to care for themselves because they are too old and no longer qualify for placement with foster families.

Most 18-year-olds haven’t yet developed strong life-skills to enable them to live on their own, and kids coming out of foster care are usually even less prepared for independent living.

Over one-third of these kids never finish high school and many don’t have jobs. Their rate of arrest, health problems, and welfare dependency are far higher than the population as a whole – as is their rate of homelessness.

The government offers little help to former foster care children who have aged out of the system, so it’s not that surprising that they often wind up on the streets or in jail. There are many fortunate ones, though, who find their way to Covenant House.

One-third or more of the homeless kids who come to Covenant House are coming from the foster care system. Here, through our Rights of Passage program, they can cross an important bridge to self-sufficiency and independence. They have the chance to acquire the skills and knowledge they need to transition from being a helpless child to becoming an independent adult.

But the problem is still much larger than we are. The welfare of our kids, including the thousands who come out of foster care every year, is always present on the Covenant House advocacy agenda.

Through ongoing advocacy efforts, we’re working to bring broader attention to faults within the foster care system – to help kids who are too old for the system, yet still too young to take care of themselves – so they never land on the streets in the first place.