Each year, 40 to 100 people “age out” of foster care in D.C. The District’s Child and Family Services Agency is in the process of fully implementing the Preserving Our Kids’ Equity Through Trusts (POKETT) Amendment Act of 2022.
Will Schick / Street Sense Media
This story was produced by Street Sense Media and The DC Line.
After years of letting federally funded housing vouchers for people leaving foster care and facing homelessness go to waste, D.C. is implementing a new law to ensure every young person who needs a voucher gets one.
The federal government funds thousands of Family Unification Program (FUP) vouchers nationally. The housing vouchers are available both for young people aging out of foster care at 21 and for parents who want to reunite with their children in foster care but need stable housing to do so.
A series of articles published by Street Sense Media and The DC Line in April revealed that the city has long used only about 80% of its FUP vouchers. According to over a dozen people interviewed for the series, young people about to leave foster care consistently needed the support but D.C.’s Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) did not connect them to vouchers. Meanwhile, CFSA reports show that between five and 20 young people move into unstable situations or experience homelessness when they age out of foster care each year.
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