Attorney and bestselling author of homeless memoir to speak at Huntington Beach Library

Attorney Regina Calcaterra was born with just about the worst cards a person can be dealt.

As the daughter of an abusive, drug-addicted mother with four siblings each with different absent fathers, Calcaterra was destined for a collision with the foster care system.

But because of the intervention of several public school teachers and childhood friends’ parents, she had the confidence needed to graduate, get her law degree and write a New York Times bestseller, “Etched in Sand.”

Her story flies in the face of statistics that half of the country’s 400,000 foster youth end up homeless.

“These kids are constantly asking themselves why they’re born into a bad hand but be grateful that you’re born with a bad hand in the United States,” Calcaterra said.

Calcaterra’s lecture from 7 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, March 22 at the Huntington Beach Central Library follows a watershed moment in Orange County history.

Public officials, homeless advocates and a federal judge negotiated plans to accommodate hundreds of people recently evicted from an encampment along the Santa Ana River Trail.

The primary message of Calcaterra’s first book, “Etched in Sand: A True Story of Five Siblings Who Survived an Unspeakable Childhood on Long Island,” is that no child is a lost cause. She urges others to show this compassion when discussing Orange County’s homeless.

“The more services that are provided to them in a place they want to live, there’s more of a chance that they’re going to be able to pull themselves up and out,” Calcaterra said. “I understand there is a NIMBY issue but the homeless people are going to continue staying in their backyard. Don’t look at the situation as, ‘What are you doing here?’ Ask, “Why?’ ”

Despite the societal challenges, she’s heartened by the more positive portrayals of foster youth in popular shows like “This is Us” and “The Fosters.” Historically, crime dramas like “Law & Order” often portray murderers and sexual predators as products of abusive foster parents.

“Between ‘The Fosters’ and ‘This is Us,’ I was very sensitive to watching to see how it’s going to roll out,” Calcaterra said. “It’s dealt with a very difficult issue in a very thoughtful way.”

While growing up, Calcaterra and her siblings never told strangers how bad their home life was because they feared being split up into different foster homes. The biggest thing the public can do to help these young survivors is to listen to what they need, she said.

This principle doesn’t just apply to the legal process of bringing minors into your home. At 18, children age out of the foster care system and have no one to support or mentor them. Calcaterra serves on the Advisory Board of You Gotta Believe, a New York City-based nonprofit that helps get foster children adopted, specifically older foster children, to break the cycle of homelessness many enter.

“It’s very easy to help a foster youth,” Calcaterra said. “Find one you connect with and provide them a safe place.”

Calcaterra recently partnered with her sister Rose Maloney to publish her memoir “Girl Unbroken,” which continues the family’s story told in “Etched in Sand.”

Regina Calcaterra will speak from 7 to 9 p.m. March 22 at Huntington Beach Central Library auditorium, 7111 Talbert Ave. For more information, call (714) 842-4481.

Daniel Langhorne is a contributor to Times Community News.