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'If There's No Funding, There's No Jump-Start'

Tribune photo by JAY CONNER

Gary Smith, 17, lives with his 22-year-old sister, Brittney. The two are former foster children. Because of budget cuts, Gary may not be able to get the Independent Living grants that have helped his sister attend college and live on her own.

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By CATHERINE DOLINSKI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 24, 2008

Updated: 05/24/2008 12:22 am

TALLAHASSEE - While her friends were out partying and enjoying other perks of college life, 22-year-old Brittney Smith of Tampa took in her 17-year-old brother and 2-year-old nephew to live with her.

"Foster care is not a place for children to grow up in," said Smith who, like her brother Gary, wound up in foster care after their father abused them.

The glue holding their unconventional household together is the Independent Living program, a federal-state partnership that keeps recent foster youths off the street and in school or employed when they turn 18. Having "aged out" of foster care herself four years ago, Smith receives nearly $900 a month through the program, making it possible for her to live on her own safely and attend Hillsborough Community College.

The grant also, Smith said, made it possible for her to take in her nephew J.J., whose teenage mother could not care for him.

Gary plans to go to college on an Independent Living grant when he leaves foster care in October. But the money might not be there for him.

This spring, state lawmakers allotted enough money for the program to keep it going, but no money to cover new grants for foster youths who turn 18 after July 1. In Hillsborough County alone, that leaves about 120 youths unfunded - including Gary.

"What?" he said into the phone, his voice close to cracking when he heard the bad budget news. "Oh man, that would be horrible - horrible. ...

"People expect you to fail, being a foster child," he said. "They don't expect you to be doctors, lawyers. They expect you to be homeless; a nobody. Independent Living, that's supposed to be a jump-start for your future. If there's no funding, there's no jump-start. People don't understand - we can't just call up our parents for money."

Some Foster Children End Up Homeless

Lacking parents or other typical means of support, up to 36 percent of those who age out of foster care at 18 become homeless, according to the Child Welfare League of America. As many as one out of every 10 homeless adults spent time in the foster care system.

In Florida, a 2007 survey by the state Department of Children & Families showed that statewide, 12 percent of former foster youths between ages 18 and 22 were homeless at some point. In Hillsborough County, the rate was 7 percent.

Prior to 2002, most foster children in Florida who turned 18 faced the adult world alone, without state financial support. Now they can receive monthly subsidies for up to five years through the Independent Living program, which steers them into education programs, jobs and safe, stable living conditions.

Participation in the voluntary program is expected to increase in the coming fiscal year. In March, 1,570 youths received Road To Independence grants, the main award provided through Independent Living. DCF expects that number to rise to about 2,370 in 2008-09.

For two years, Gov. Charlie Crist has proposed funding the program fully to cover both new and existing participants. Each year, the Legislature refused.

Crist proposed in January boosting funding for the program by $16.8 million, for a total of $44 million. About a month later, the state's economists announced that Florida would come up $3 billion short of revenue projections for this fiscal year and next.

For nearly two months lawmakers, advocates and special interest groups scrambled for a share of the state's dwindling dollars.

In the end, the Legislature passed an austere budget for 2008-09 that slashed about $4 billion from current spending on social services, education, health care, public safety and other areas.

Foster children were among those in the cross hairs, with lawmakers proposing cuts to the subsidies that support adoptions as well as those that help former foster youths with housing, food and other necessities as they transition into adult society.

In the end, lawmakers granted DCF special flexibility to shift unused dollars from other parts of its budget to cover the funding gap for adoption subsidies, but not for Independent Living grants.

'Next Year, Just Pray For More Money'

The program remains a high priority for lawmakers, said House Healthcare Council Chairman Aaron Bean, noting that lawmakers dipped into a state trust fund to avoid making a $7 million cut to the program - thereby restoring funding for people who are already in the program, but providing none for those who age out after July 1.

"No one wanted to see reductions to any type of kids' program," said Bean, R-Fernandina Beach.

"I don't know where the money's going to come from," said Sen. Durell Peaden, R-Crestview, chief of the Senate's health and human services budget. "Next year, just pray for more money pouring into the coffers."

DCF Secretary Bob Butterworth lauded the state's community-based foster services providers for stretching their thin budgets far enough to provide the Independent Living subsidies this year, despite inadequate funding.

But with no new money for a second straight year, he said, meeting the need "is going to be very tough."

Butterworth said his agency will appeal to the private sector to shore up the program with donations, scholarships and other support.

"Our goal is to have employment and education for 100 percent of the young adults that age out," he said. "It's a big challenge; we need those business partners."

Teen Wants To Buckle Down

Like Gary Smith, James Fry of Tampa is planning to go to college on an Independent Living grant when he ages out of foster care next April.

It's not just his future that hinges on that, he said. It's his daughter's future, too. Fry, 17, and his pregnant 16-year-old girlfriend are expecting the birth of a girl in a month.

Like the majority of foster youths, Fry will not have enough credits to graduate from high school when he ages out of the system, having been shuffled in and out of schools almost every year since entering foster care about age 5, when the state first took him from an abusive father.

Fry just took the high school equivalency exam and is waiting for the results; he and his girlfriend plan to take care of their daughter and themselves, he said. With the state's help, he will study auto body collision repair at Hillsborough Community College while his girlfriend finishes high school. Then she will attend community college for two years before the couple moves to Jacksonville, where she will finish her studies to become a radiology technician.

Fry admits that he has taken some wrong paths during his odyssey through the foster care system, skipping school and getting arrested multiple times. But when he found out about the baby, he said, things changed.

"It's my motivation to do better," Fry said. "I wasn't thinking about school like that. I was skipping everything. But when I found out I had a daughter, I started buckling down."

But their plan falls apart if the Independent Living grants dry up. "It'd be tough," Fry said. "Looking at the economy, jobs aren't going too well right now."

Absent support from the state, he said, he could foresee winding up on the streets.

Local Groups Hope To Find A Way

Diane Zambito, executive director of Connected by 25 in Hillsborough, said eliminating funding for any of these teens "is not even an option that should be up for consideration" - especially if they are in high school, because there are fewer resources available to help them.

"There are no scholarships to go to high school," said Zambito, whose private nonprofit organization coordinates with private businesses, groups and foundations to support foster children exiting the system. "And the majority of kids aging out are in 10th or 11th grade."

Hillsborough Kids Inc., a community-based nonprofit organization that contracts with the state to provide services for local foster children, anticipates coming up short of Independent Living funds by $250,000 to $500,000 this coming fiscal year. That's in addition to the roughly $1.8 million that Hillsborough's foster youths are expected to lose as a result of other cuts to foster care services.

Jeff Rainey, president and CEO of Hillsborough Kids, said he intends to find some way to support all local youths coming out of foster care, though he's not yet sure how.

"It's going to have to be on a kid-by-kid basis, really," he said of the Independent Living grants. "Our goal is to ensure that every child's needs are met."

Reporter Catherine Dolinski can be reached at (850) 222-8382 or cdolinski@tampatrib.com.

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