Minnesota must act on what fosters know about homelessness

We need to stop treating homelessness among people raised in the foster care system as a problem that begins when they leave the state’s care. By then, we may already be years late.

At Foster Advocates, a foster-founded and foster-led organization, we have been telling Minnesota about the instability that can follow repeated moves, disrupted relationships, and support that arrives too late. 

A new report gives the state more evidence. What matters now is what we do with it.

Wilder Research’s new report, developed with Foster Advocates, draws on the 2023 Minnesota Homeless Study. About four in 10 young people ages 24 and younger interviewed while experiencing homelessness had lived in a foster or group home. Among that group, the average age of first homelessness was 13.

That is not an average for all fosters, and it does not establish that every young person first became homeless while in care. But it makes clear why a response focused only on when fosters leave care is not enough. For a child who is already homeless, help is overdue.

Foster leaders helped interpret these findings, bringing their knowledge to questions the numbers alone could not answer. They explained that identifying a single “first time” can be complicated: For some, the loss of home began with removal or repeated moves, even when a placement did not meet an official definition of homelessness.

A bed and an address do not tell us whether a young person feels safe, knows how long they can stay, or has someone they trust. Those are questions we need to ask early and often, and the young person’s answers need to matter to ensure every child has a safe, stable place to live and people they can count on.

Minnesota’s response to the new findings should start with taking fosters seriously when they say something is wrong. When a young person says they feel unsafe, or do not know where they will sleep, or cannot stay where they are — that should be enough to begin helping. We should not require a shelter stay before offering support or punish a young person for trying to get safe.

State and county agencies should be able to answer three questions: 

1. Does this young person have somewhere safe to live now? 
2. Who is responsible for helping when that changes? 
3. When will that help arrive? Recording a concern is not the same as resolving it. 

 Agencies must then take responsibility for connecting their work rather than making a foster manage every handoff. A support referral should not count as success if the young person still has nowhere safe to stay. Coordination needs to lead to housing they can afford, support they can actually access, and someone responsible for following through.

That means addressing the barriers between a program on paper and help in a person’s life. Ask fosters about bureaucratic boundaries —  applications, eligibility rules, referrals and county boundaries. Then, assign responsibility for eliminating those barriers and provide the resources to do it. Better communication is important, but it cannot substitute for an affordable home or money for a deposit.

Preparation for adulthood for the 10,000 or so fosters in Minnesota should build on the relationships a foster wants to keep and provide practical help with housing, income, transportation and benefits. That support cannot end on a foster’s 18th birthday or with a referral. A missed paycheck or medical bill should not cost a young person their home. They should have people they trust and flexible help when something goes wrong.

Finally, fosters must hold real authority in designing and evaluating this response. Pay people for their expertise and involve them before priorities, budgets and measures of success are set. Fosters should help decide what needs to change and assess whether those changes are making life more stable. “Nothing about fosters without fosters” has to mean more than an invitation to share a story.

We should judge Minnesota’s response by whether fosters are safely housed, connected to people they trust, and able to get help when they need it. Fosters should not have to keep proving that this is happening before something changes.

The report is here, and so is the knowledge of the people who helped make sense of it. State and county leaders need to work with fosters to turn that knowledge into changes people can feel in their lives. For a young person who needs somewhere safe to sleep tonight, that work cannot wait.