Foster-Care ‘Orphans’ Struggle to Cope as Adults Unprepared for Life

When he left foster care, Brian Bartolome found himself living in his white Volkswagen Rabbit, keeping warm with only a Raiders jacket and occasional drives around the block with the heater running.

He had no home, little money and no family or friends when he left his foster group at 18. “There were times when the [public] bathrooms were closed and I had nowhere to go,” he said. “My diet was based on canned food, bread and plenty of water.”

Bartolome is one of about 2,000 youths who must leave California’s foster-care system every year. After depending for years on the system for food, shelter and quality of life, many are mustered out at 18 without ever learning how to cope on their own. One in five ends up homeless.

But the state is trying to help young people like Bartolome. This fiscal year it allotted $11.4 million for counties to expand programs that teach foster youths such skills as managing their money and enrolling in school.

And in Los Angeles County, a program funded by two federal grants offers temporary housing, food and transportation money.

The county’s Transitional Housing Program, the first in the state, can accommodate only 214 of the 900 teens who leave the foster-care system each year. It hopes to expand it to 314 by the end of the year.

Bartolome, now 22, saved $350 while working at McDonald’s and bought his car while still in foster care. With no one to support him after his release, he was getting reconciled to the idea that the aging VW would become home.

He couldn’t get a decent-paying job because he had only an eighth-grade education. But at age 20, his life changed when he walked into a youth shelter in Orange County. The staff helped him find a place to live and taught him basic skills, such as how to fill in a job application and knot a necktie.

Tom Woods, a former state assemblyman who has fought to improve conditions for former foster children, says Bartolome’s situation is not unusual: Only about 20% of foster kids become self-sufficient at 18.

The foster-care system was shaped in the 1950s, when people could live comfortably off a high school education, Woods said. “But that scenario no longer exists,” he said. “We live in a new era, and we need to reshape the system to fit not only that era but the kids who live in it.”

Phu Nguyen began attending San Jose State University as soon as he left his group foster home three years ago. He moved into the dorms with just the clothes he was wearing.

“My first year of college was a nightmare,” said Nguyen, 21. “My first night, I had no toothbrush, no blanket. All I had were some old books.”

Nguyen remembers his first Christmas in college, when the dorms were closed and he had no place to go for the holidays.

“There was happiness on everyone’s faces,” Nguyen said, his voice cracking. “Me, I was cold, hungry and depressed. I had no place to stay. I was forced to live in my car. I ate one sandwich every day and drank water from the fountain and took showers whenever the gym was open. It was a nightmare.”

As longtime wards of the state, some teenagers don’t know how to clean, cook and do laundry, chores normally learned from parents, said Sharyn Logan, deputy director of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

“Some of these kids have never gone to the grocery store and shopped, or never bought their own clothes,” she said.

Monique Bledsoe, 18, had a diploma but little else when she left her group home four months ago.

Through the transitional program she has been able to live in safe, affordable housing while learning the skills to sustain her and her 2-year-old daughter, Kajmere. She now works as a receptionist at the Department of Children and Family Services.

“I didn’t have anywhere to go--no money, no job, just a diploma,” she said. “So if it wasn’t for this program, I would be homeless, going from place to place, me and my daughter.”

Bledsoe grew up without a father, and her mother could not cope alone. So from age 5 she moved around from foster homes to group homes, which are really small orphanages. She said it feels good to find some stability, even if it is only temporary.

Participants in the program are chosen on the basis of need, said Peter Digre, director of the county’s Children and Family Services. “We try to focus on the kids who really do need it and wouldn’t have anything otherwise,” he said. The one-year program is extended to 18 months in special circumstances.

Participants receive a monthly $200 food voucher and free bus passes, and must work full-time or attend school and work part-time. They also must pay 25% of their monthly income as “rent,” which is actually deposited into a savings account and returned to them at the end of their stay.

The Margarita Mendez Center in Los Angeles has eight units that house 15 youths. All apartments come with a washer and dryer, linens, pots and pans.

“I feel that I am lucky,” said Bledsoe, who lives in a similar county transitional home in Inglewood. “When I have to leave here, I will be ready to get a place on my own.”