Factors Influencing Homelessness Among Youth Aging out of Foster Care, and the Relation of Homelessness to Other Wellbeing Outcomes: Findings from the National Youth in Transitions Database

Purpose: Each year between 23,000 and 28,000 youth “age out” of the US foster care system. Stable and secure housing is a “critical platform” to set the stage for successful navigation of other normative transitions in young adulthood. Among youth who have exited or aged out of foster care, housing instability is associated with greater likelihood of being disconnected from educational or vocational settings and higher rates of emotional distress, delinquent behavior, and substance use. Less is known, however, about the protective role pre-transition independent living services (ILS) may play in preventing homelessness. Further, studies to date have not examined the impact of state-level policies in extending services to older foster youth past the age of 18 or the percentage of Chafee funds allocated to housing on reducing youth homelessness. In this study, we addressed these critical gaps in the literature.

Method: This study used two waves of longitudinal data from the National Youth in Transition (NYTD) survey, a national sample of older foster youth transitioning from care (N=7,449), to examine the impact of receipt of ILS at age 17 on young adult homelessness 2 years later. The study employed a multi-level analysis to simultaneously examine the relationships of individual level factors (e.g. receipt of ILS, previous experience of homelessness, substance abuse, criminal justice involvement, connection to adult, and whether the youth is still in foster care at age 19) and state level factors (e.g. federal approval to extend foster care past age 18, and percent of state Chafee funds spent on housing for fiscal years 2011-2013) on young adult experiences of homelessness at age 19.

Results: Asian American/Pacific Islander youth were 66% less likely to experience homelessness at age 19 compared to their White counterparts [OR= 0.33, 95% CI= 0.16, 0.67]. Youth who were homeless before age 17 are 2.2 times more likely to experience homelessness again [OR=2.37, 95% CI= 2.03, 2.77]. Similarly youth who with a prior history of substance abuse referrals were 1.7 times more likely to experience homelessness [OR= 1.60, 95% CI= 1.34,1.90], and those with a prior history of incarceration were 1.5 times more likely to experience homelessness at age 19 [OR=1.40, 95% CI= 1.12,1.74]. Two individual level protective factors were significant. Youth who reported a strong connection to at least one caring adult at age 17 were 26% less likely to experience homelessness at age 19 [OR=0.74, 95% CI= 0.60-0.94) and youth who remained in foster care at age 19 were Youth still in foster care at age 19 are 70% less likely to experience homelessness [OR=0.30, 95% CI= 0.24, 0.36]. State level factors were nonsignificant in the model.

Implications: We discuss the need to strengthen data collection on services for youth exiting care and the need for further work to understand how variation in policy context among states impacts this important young adult outcome, particularly given that 20% of the sample, or 1 in 5 young adults, report having experienced homeless at age 19.