Building Foster Kids a Bridge to Adulthood

It is called, in the parlance of social workers, “emancipation,” which the dictionary defines as “a release from bondage, a grant of freedom.”

But for foster children like Humberto Beltran, it feels more like abandonment and loss than release and freedom, this emancipation process that is about to sever his ties to the only home he has.

Beltran, 18, will graduate from high school in June. With that, payments to his foster family will end, as will Los Angeles County’s responsibility to feed, clothe and shelter him.

But Beltran’s future is brighter than that of most foster kids, who are typically forced out at 18 to walk a tightrope of survival, without practice or safety net.

Beltran is one of two dozen San Fernando Valley youths who will move from foster care into apartments of their own this spring, under the care of social workers, case managers, job developers, therapists--a cadre of specialists who will usher them across the bridge from adolescence to independence.

In his speech last week at a ceremony marking the opening of the “transitional living” complex he will call home, Beltran shared his fear (“ . . . of being on my own”), his goal (to enroll in junior college), his dream (to become a probation officer and help troubled kids and families like his).

And during the part of the speech in which most kids thank their mom and dad, teachers, coaches, Beltran offered his gratitude to his foster parents, his social worker and the folks at the nonprofit agency Penny Lane, “for giving me a place to stay.”

*

For years, it was a haven for crack addicts, in the midst of a blighted neighborhood known mostly for its barbed-wire fences and street drug dealers. Today, it is a rainbow-colored apartment complex, providing shelter for some of the county’s most easily neglected youths.

The complex, which opened in North Hills last week, is the third apartment building to be refurbished and converted to “transitional housing,” by Penny Lane, a social service organization that operates an $11-million network of foster homes, clinics, educational centers and group homes in the San Fernando Valley.

By providing a temporary home for former foster children from 18 to 24, transitional housing aims to fill a gap in foster care services and give those youths a better shot at making it on their own.

Every year about 1,000 foster care youths are emancipated in Los Angeles County. Most leave their homes with few skills, little money and scant understanding of what it takes to survive.

Many have spent the better part of their lives in foster homes, group homes or residential centers, where life can be so regimented “you have to ask somebody when you want to go to the bathroom or get something from the kitchen to eat,” one youth said.

Imagine moving from that type of structure to a world where you answer to no one, where you have total freedom . . . and total responsibility.

There is no slow march toward independence for these teenagers, no gradual loosening of the reins by watchful parents. And there is no home to go back to, no family to fall back on, should life on the outside prove too tough.

“We have kids who’ve never prepared a meal, don’t know how to shop for groceries or do their own laundry,” said Mary Bratton, who serves as a sort of housemother to the teenagers at Penny Lane. “One girl, she’d eat cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner because that’s all she knew how to fix. You tell me how she’s going to survive on her own.”

In fact, welfare workers say almost half of the teenagers emancipated each year end up living on the streets within six months.

A study by a UC Berkeley professor of young adults emancipated from foster care found that a third of them were engaged in criminal activity, more than half were using drugs and almost one-third had been arrested since leaving foster care.

For years, there was little understanding of the problems faced by former foster youth. But that is changing, on both the state and federal levels.

California is in the midst of a three-year effort to track and document the problems faced by emancipated youth. And more government money is being allocated to create transitional housing and to fund programs like Bridges to Independence, a private effort that provides temporary housing to hundreds of emancipated youths in Los Angeles County.

*

But housing is not all former foster children need. They need help finding jobs or enrolling in college, guidance in managing money and shopping wisely. Many need instruction in the basics of housekeeping or navigating public transportation.

At Penny Lane, this all comes with a price. Residents must abide by a strict code of behavior, which includes a smoking ban, an 11 p.m. curfew and a requirement that residents be enrolled in school or work full time.

In exchange, a portion of their income is held in trust and returned to them when they are deemed ready to move on. Consider it a nest egg of sorts . . . for children who have never really had a nest.

*

Sandy Banks’ column is published on Sundays and Tuesdays. Her e-mail address is sandy.banks@latimes.com.