Foster Youth Deserve Better Than Unsafe, Scary Housing
When supportive housing fails to provide a safe, clean, and dignified home, foster youth like Cheyanne Deopersaud are left vulnerable and unsupported. Through her personal story, in an opinion piece for The Imprint, Cheyanne calls for reforms that would truly support young people aging out of foster care.
On November 7, 2024, Next100 policy entrepreneur Cheyanne Deopersaud published an opinion piece in The Imprint, a youth and family news outlet, highlighting failures in the supportive housing system that serves former foster youth. The piece, “Foster Youth Deserve Better Than Unsafe, Scary Housing”, builds on Cheyanne’s research and policy expertise, as well as her lived experience residing in supportive housing in New York City.
Cheyanne writes:
“Youth who have had experience in the child welfare system need housing today, yesterday and tomorrow — but quality at that. Giving youth only the bare minimum — a place to sleep — allows these systems to mask the deeper issues, abandoning us as soon as we age out of care and are no longer seen as the city’s responsibility.”
Read the full article from The Imprint here.
For more on this issue, explore Cheyanne’s full report, Trapped in Transition: The State of Supportive Housing for Former Foster Youth in New York City.