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'I was literally in here starving' | Former Georgia foster kid describes aging out of system at 21 years old

The state is eligible to receive 700-800 housing assistance vouchers a year, but the DFCS and local housing authorities have only secured three.

Savannah Levins, Mike Nicolas, Ciara Bri'd Frisbie, Kristie Anderson

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Published: 6:00 AM EDT August 22, 2024
Updated: 2:36 PM EDT August 22, 2024

Georgia has hardly tapped into a federal program that offsets housing costs for young people aging out of foster care, 11Alive Investigates found

More than 600 young adults, between 18 and 21 years old, age out of foster care in Georgia every year. The state's welfare agency, the Georgia Division of Family & Children Services (DFCS), doesn't track those young people after they leave the state's care. 

However, social work researchers estimate more than 40% of foster youth will face homelessness within two years of leaving the system. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) established the Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) program in 2019 to address the issue. 

Credit: WXIA

The program's vouchers provide up to 36 months of financial housing assistance to young adults, between the ages of 18 and 24, who have left foster care or will leave foster care in the next 90 days. The latest round of funding, announced by HUD in April 2024, includes nearly $13 million available to housing authorities in the U.S. 

The FYI program requires each state's welfare agency to work with local housing authorities to apply for the vouchers. This year, Georgia is eligible to receive a combined 769 FYI vouchers. But, according to data provided by HUD, only three vouchers have been obtained by two housing authorities in the state: Brunswick and Albany. This means Georgia has only tapped into .005% of the $12,746,450 available from the federal government.

Check out the interactive map of the number of children (ages 12 years old and older) leaving foster care in 2021, according to the latest data from the United States Children's Bureau.

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