Obstacles with the foster system

Although intended to aid young people, the systemized issues within the foster system have exacerbated the amount of youth without a home. 

Dewes advocates for reforming the foster care system in certain aspects as their neglect personally impacted him. 

“The foster system wouldn’t take me when I was homeless,” Dewes said. “My teacher called ‘CPS’ because they just thought, ‘oh, he has a place to live,’ so they just let me slip through the cracks.”

Doug Styles, the executive director of Huckleberry House in San Francisco, has also noticed the foster system issues and how it’s often a barrier between youth in crucial times of development and the help they require. 

“The foster system almost operates on the belief that if someone is 16 or 17 and they’ve only got a year or two left in the system, there’s nothing they can do,” Styles said. “There’s not a lot of crucial support for those who fall in these age categories, which negatively impacts the trajectories of these people’s lives.” 

Many people seeking services at the Huckleberry House are in the foster care system but aren’t gaining sufficient support. 

“We have some people who are technically in the system but are roaming around and aren’t connecting to a family, and sometimes, it’s hard to find their social worker,” Styles said. “We also have people who dropped out of the system and others who have just been a challenge in the foster system, so a good placement hasn’t been found.”

Besides declining help to countless youth, the foster system has an extensive list of abuses. According to the Children’s Law Center of California, youth booted out of the foster care system generally lacked solid and supportive relationships. 

However, states that kept some children over 18 in the system experienced better results, progressed further in education, experienced less economic hardship, and had greater access to mental health resources. 

The law in California, though, is that once one turns 18 or even nearing 18, they’re out or turned away and left to fend for themselves.