Foster youth housing needs federal bailout

By Angela Penny
The Guardsman

Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposed 2010-2011 budget includes a list of services that will be eliminated unless the state receives a $6.9 billion bailout from the federal government. According to the governor’s Web site, this includes $36 million for funding the Transitional Housing Placement Plus Program, a state program for emancipated foster youth that provides them with transitional housing after they turn 18.

Loss of this funding would have a direct negative impact on the lives of City College’s 150 to 175 Guardian Scholar students.

The City College Guardian Scholars program is a student retention service launched in January 2008. The program was developed in response to the Chaffee Educational Training Voucher initiative, a national program that provides grants to college students who have former foster youth status. A need was recognized for a program that coordinated all of the different services available to these students so that they can focus on their education.

“The Guardian Scholars program coordinates a specific set of survival services so that the students can focus on school,” said Michael McPartlin, special services manager at City College. These services include housing, scholarships, food, transportation, jobs, books, advocacy, counseling and mentoring.

In its first semester the program had 22 participants, and now it has 150 to 175 students each semester.

Tyrone Botelho was one of the first Guardian Scholars at City College and one of four who are now enrolled at UC Berkeley.

“I didn’t even think of applying to Cal. I never thought they would want me. But with the support of Michael McPartlin and the Guardian Scholars Program, here I am, at my dream school. I never could have done it alone,” Botelho said.

The Guardian Scholars program is able to provide students with short-term emergency housing at reputable residence hotels, but it relies on outside partners to fulfill their ongoing need for long-term post-foster care housing. The THP-Plus program, funded by the California Department of Social Services, is one of two major providers of housing for these students.

Since City College has no on-campus residences, unlike four-year colleges, and because San Francisco is so expensive, the potential loss of this money will hit students on this campus especially hard.

According to the Guardian Scholars Program Report 2008 – 2009, City College has more Chaffee recipients than any other school in the state. Like the school itself, the Guardian Scholar program at City College has an open-door policy, meaning that anyone who meets the basic requirements can take any course they like. Four-year institutions usually have more stringent academic requirements and less flexibility in course selection.

“The relatively small amount of money that THP-Plus requires makes all the difference in these student’s lives. The program already experienced budget cuts in December and we’re busy learning how to adjust to those. More cuts will be seriously debilitating,” McPartlin said.

According to Jenny Vinopal, assistant director of the foster youth program at California State University, it costs $15,000 and $16,000 to support an emancipated foster youth going to community college, but $50,000 to support an inmate in a California state prison.

In a presentation given by her department, they revealed that while 70 percent of foster care youth express a desire to go to school, only about 20 percent actually attend.

Researchers conducted interviews with students in the program to assess the Guardian Scholars program’s impact on their lives.  Some said, “it has helped me to focus on my school and housing and it has gotten me off the streets and to get a better life,” and “they have played a vital role in my educational goals and personal growth; without the student services at CCSF I wouldn’t have known my potential.”