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Young people are stuck longer in foster care because they can’t find housing, report says
By
Karen Yi
Published Apr 23, 2025
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By
Karen Yi
Published Apr 23, 2025
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About a third of young people who age out of New York City’s foster care system are being forced to stay longer in the city’s care because they can’t find affordable places to live, according to a report released Wednesday.
The report, released by a group of former foster youth, real estate consultants and advocates for children, outlines how the city’s tight housing market leaves teenagers and young adults exiting foster care with few options for independence. Many of them, the report states, remain either in foster care or in group homes. Some who live independently end up in apartments where they don’t feel safe, according to the report.
The report proposes 10 ways elected leaders and developers can create 800 homes for foster youth in the next five years. It comes as a quarter of New Yorkers can’t afford basics like housing and food and as the percentage of empty apartments available to rent remains drastically low.
“Imagine how much more difficult it is when you don't have parental support, when you don't have any credit history, when you're actually one of the most underserved demographic groups in New York City,” said Tony Turner, a former foster youth who now co-directs the Youth Advisory Board at the Center for Fair Futures, which authored the report.
New Yorkers age out of foster care at 21 years old. The city’s Administration for Children’s Services, which manages the foster care system, can’t release young people from care into homelessness or shelters, so some remain with their foster families or in group homes if they can’t find housing.
The agency partners with the Center for Fair Futures to provide coaches who help young adults find housing. The agency also holds weekly meetings to help teach young people about their housing options as they get close to aging out. And in 2023, the city rolled out a new model partnering with the nonprofit Anthos|Home to create a bank of apartments that are available for quick move-ins. City officials have said the program placed 100 foster youth, who all remain housed.
Of the more than 400 teenagers and young adults who aged out in 2023, 31% remained in the city’s care after aging out because they couldn’t find housing. Another 32% found housing using rental-assistance programs or moved into public housing or college housing and 37% moved in with family, the report said.
It added that even foster youth who find apartments report feeling unsafe in their units or living in places infested with rodents or mold.
“It took four years to get my apartment. I just kind of took whatever I could get,” Turner said. “That's really the reality for the majority of young people. The standard is just let me get the first apartment that looks halfway decent and so I don't end up homeless.”
Most foster youth have three choices when it comes to housing they can afford: New York City Housing Authority units, using municipal vouchers to help pay for rent, or moving into supportive housing that provides services to New Yorkers who have certain needs, such as those who are homeless or suffer from addiction.
But the report said young adults don’t always want to live in supportive housing and it can take years to find units they can afford. Often, they end up in neighborhoods that are already overburdened with poverty or racially segregated.
“Most families help their children when they grow up,” said Jeremy Kohomban, president and CEO of The Children's Village, a nonprofit focused on children's well-being. “In an impersonal system like foster care, you don’t have that emotional and financial support that helps a lot of children get on their feet.”
The report outlines ways to make it easier for foster youth to find places to live, such as creating a private philanthropic fund to help subsidize construction of affordable housing in desirable neighborhoods for foster youth. It also includes utilizing different lease agreements that allow nonprofits to hold the lease rather than foster youth, in order to incentivize landlords to take in foster youth tenants.
Advocates say some teens and young adults will go stay on a friend’s couch or take the first apartment they see just to exit the system, even if they end up homeless a few weeks later.
“These young people already have to navigate so much,” said Tracy Jenkins, executive director of the Center for Fair Futures. “When they turn 21, we expect them to figure out housing, jobs, adulthood when they really have no safety net.”
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new york city
economy
Karen Yi
Karen Yi covers homelessness and poverty. She joined the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom in 2020. Before that, Karen covered Newark for the Star-Ledger and spent almost a decade working for newspapers in New Jersey and Florida. She grew up in Miami and has a dog named Cashew. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-589-1460.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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