County OKs housing plan to aid former foster children

Clark County is partnering with the Las Vegas Housing Authority on a program to provide former foster children with housing as they "age-out" of foster care.

The pilot program, which the county and housing authority believe is the first of its kind in the United States, would place up to 10 young adults leaving local foster care at the top of the waiting list for federal Section 8 housing vouchers. The vouchers can be used to rent housing.

Homeless service providers have long said that foster children and former foster children are at high risk of becoming homeless because of a lack of support services.

The new program, which was approved at Tuesday's Clark County Commission meeting, is a step toward addressing that problem, Commissioner Lawrence Weekly said.

"We want to let these kids know there is another alternative out there," he said. "I don't want young people to feel so full of despair and that there's just no hope for them."

Every year about 100 young adults leave Clark County's foster care program without any family support, the county said. They are eligible to receive limited financial assistance, which averages between $5,000 and $8,000 a year, up to age 21.

The Section 8 program has no age limit, so former foster children could still participate after they turn 21.

The new program will have little fiscal impact on the county, Weekly said.

"The resources are already there. We have the kids, they (the housing authority) have the resources."

The housing authority is set to formally adopt the program at its June 19 meeting, said Carl Rowe, director of the agency. It had previously received approval from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to offer the vouchers to former foster children.

"Foster kids are no longer foster kids when they reach 21, and in many cases they've got no place to go," Rowe said. "You kind of create instant homelessness. What chance do they have?"

Kathleen Boutin, director and founder of the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, applauded the new program.

"That's 10 less people that might end up on the streets," she said.

But Boutin, whose program often works with children who have "had an unsuccessful encounter with the child welfare system," said providing housing is not enough.

"We have kids who have run away from foster care, been kicked out of foster care, taken from one caretaker to another, they run the gamut," she said. "In our experience with foster care youth, many of them end up homeless at some point. They don't necessarily leave the system with the skills they need."

Weekly and Rowe said they hope the Section 8 program will quickly grow.

"We're starting with only 10 (vouchers) because we want to make sure all the kinks are worked out," Weekly said.

"If the program succeeds, I can see other housing authorities across the country picking it up," Rowe said.