{"id":45912,"date":"2024-05-27T22:07:39","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T02:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=45912"},"modified":"2024-05-27T22:07:50","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T02:07:50","slug":"housing-agencies-look-to-help-youth-aging-out-of-foster-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/05\/27\/housing-agencies-look-to-help-youth-aging-out-of-foster-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Housing agencies look to help youth aging out of foster care"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, youth who age out of foster care often lose the support and stability provided by the system, leading to a high risk of homelessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLooking for housing, especially without a reference, is a struggle,\u201d said first-time renter Shiane Bunch.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The 22-year-old says she struggled to find housing since aging out of the foster care system about a year ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then she learned about Swan Lake Village<\/a>, a new affordable housing development by Blue Sky Communities in Lakeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI learned they accept foster kids, and it was section 8, so I thought it was good to get in here and take the chance, and I finally got in,\u201d said Bunch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says it\u2019s the best decision she\u2019s made yet as an adult. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love it here. It\u2019s beautiful,\u201d said Bunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Community Assisted and Supported Living<\/a> organization (CASL), some young adults who grew up in foster care may not have completed their education or have the necessary skills to secure stable employment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CASL says this can also be a barrier to securing housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, HUD\u2019s Foster Youth to Independence<\/a> program made $13 million available for public housing agencies, like Swan Lake, to address this problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vivianne Vanador, a case manager with CASL, says on-site services at Swan Lake offer extra support, like counseling, to help clients transition from foster care to independent living.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like they\u2019re still in that frame of mind as a teenager even though they are in their 20s,\u201d said Vanador. \u201cThat\u2019s where I come in.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She helps with things like housing vouchers, finding a job, rides to doctor\u2019s appointments and weekly grocery deliveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love the support and guidance that I receive here at CASL,\u201d said Bunch, \u201cLiving on my own, I do have type one diabetes, so I was a little scared, but they helped me open my mind.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bunch says the odds can be stacked against people who\u2019ve been in foster care seeking independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEspecially with the rent. How hard it is now, it\u2019s hard to find a place,\u201d she said. \u201cFoster care wasn\u2019t that great of an experience, but it did help me stability-wise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now with stable housing and a new job, Bunch says she can focus on building the future of her dreams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She hopes to inspire other young people currently in foster care that they can do the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, youth who age out of foster care often lose the support and stability provided by the system, leading to a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[8628],"class_list":["post-45912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-housing-agencies-look-to-help-youth-aging-out-of-foster-care"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}