Youth Today News podcast: Season 1 — Episode 2
KELLY FLYNN/CROSSCUT
Young adults leaving programs often struggle with homelessness.
Young people eventually released from Washington state’s foster care, juvenile or mental and behavioral health systems often do so without having reliable, steady housing already in place. For instance, the latest estimate is that 17% of young people leaving foster care were homeless at some point within a year of that exit.
With a new law in 2018 and the passage of complementary legislation earlier this year, state lawmakers have ramped up a multibillion-dollar effort to keep those teens and young adults from falling into homelessness.
For this episode of the Youth Today podcast, producer Rachel Stevens talked to the lead sponsor of that legislation about what she hopes it will achieve. She also spoke with two young women who were homeless after being released from state care to get their take on whether the new initiatives are sufficient.
This podcast episode was produced in partnership with Crosscut. It is part of an ongoing series on homelessness in Washington state, made possible, in part, by support from the Raikes Foundation. Youth Today and Crosscut maintain editorial control.
Read the full story on Youth Today.
Podcast credits
Host: Patrick L. Riley
Producer/reporter: Rachel Stevens
Story editor: Mark Baumgarten
Related videos, stories and podcasts
• Video and story: Washington state young adults often end up homeless after leaving treatment
• Video and story: Education for young people in shelters was already a challenge — then coronavirus hit
• Story: Upended by COVID-19, some nonprofits went online, on the road and otherwise innovated to aid homeless youth
• Podcast: How homeless youth service adapted to COVID
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