Over 20,000 foster care and probation youth transition out of care each year burdened with the extraordinary feat of finding affordable housing and meaningful employment to survive. Many emancipated youth struggle and become ensnared by the nets of chronic homelessness, unemployment, and periods of incarceration.  Others are able to preserve their dignity with a job and an apartment, but they struggle to live above the poverty line, unable to secure a living wage.

For years, staff at Hillsides, a Pasadena residential and family-centered community-based treatment center, noticed that many of our former foster care youth could have used more help and time after emancipating at 18 to prepare for the challenges of adulthood.  Few organizations were providing transitional housing to emancipated foster youth, but there weren’t enough beds for Hillsides youth and many others like them in Los Angeles and Pasadena.