For former foster children, home sweet home doesn't exist

Students have 'no place to go' on college breaks

By Lauren O. Kidd Gannett State Bureau
April 17, 2006

TRENTON -- In an age and an economy that are forcing an unprecedented number of college graduates to move back in with their parents, one twenty-something who aged out of New Jersey's foster care program never had that advantage.

GANNETT NEW JERSEY/Ron Livingston, a former William Paterson student and foster child, had no place to stay during breaks from school.

Ronald Livingston did not even have a place to call home during winter break. When class was in session, a dorm room on the William Paterson University campus was home for Livingston of Camden, now 23. But during spring, winter and summer breaks, he says he "just stayed around." He stayed with friends and ex-girlfriends. He spent a few summer nights on the Camden waterfront. Because he feared being a burden to others, everything was temporary. "You can tell when you are wearing out your welcome and it's time to pick up your couple of trash bags of clothes and move onto the next place," said Livingston, who no longer sees his biological or foster families. "People just take it for granted. You go home over breaks, and if you have no home, then what?" said Gary Stangler, executive director of the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, a national foundation focused on helping foster care youth transition into adulthood. "We encounter it all too frequently. I know of people personally who have spent part of their college years living in their car, particularly over breaks, or couch surfing with whatever friends or extended family can take them in during those times. It's a hard issue that is overlooked," Stangler said.

Of the 20,000 youths in the nation who age out of foster care each year, "a very small amount"graduate from college, Stangler said. About 400 New Jerseyans who are in foster care or aged out of foster care are currently enrolled in post-secondary education programs, state officials estimate.

Livingston paid for his education with a combination of loans, financial aid and scholarship money from the C.H.A.M.P. program -- short for Creating Higher Aspirations and Motivations Project, it's one of 10 College Bound programs in the state. But he spent only two semesters at William Paterson.

With no support network to fall back on, Livingston left the wooded North Jersey campus he was so excited to live on. "It was such a beautiful place. It was so far away from Camden. I was so happy to be out of Camden," Livingston said. He moved back to the Camden area to work and attend Camden County College, then dropped out of county college when his life became too hectic. "It was either school or working or moving around that I had to give up, and I couldn't give up moving around and I definitely couldn't give up working," Livingston said.

"Most young people will be dependent on their parents to some extent until their mid-twenties," said Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. "The young people who need the help most, get the least. "

Since they (foster children) never had a parent, they have no place to go," Wexler, who advocates supporting families instead of placing kids in foster care, said of former foster kids who go onto college.

New Jersey aware
The state is aware of the situation of some students having no place to live on college breaks, said Nancy Caplan, independent living coordinator for the state Division of Youth and Family Services. Caplan cannot comment on specific DYFS cases like Livingston's.

"We are aware of it, so what we are trying to do is figure out how to deal with it," Caplan said. In the past, private nonprofit groups that have contracts with the state have worked with schools so "kids could stay at a fraternity house or on campus during the breaks," Caplan said.

Currently, DYFS is attempting to implement a policy that would allow students to use federal scholarship dollars to pay foster families or others to house them over breaks, Caplan said.

The division is also looking into giving such students "independent living status," which would provide them a small stipend to use toward housing, as well as considering faith-based organizations that may be able to match kids with people with extra rooms, Caplan said.

Before moving onto its Wayne campus, William Paterson University students must sign a residence hall contract that states, among other provisions, "Residents are required to leave the residence halls during break periods. Any students providing a need to stay will be reviewed by residence life and are subject to the availability of the specific building."

"It's not a permanent address, it's only contracted semesterly, but we kind of left the door open so that if there are special circumstances that we certainly would review it. But we couldn't guarantee we'd allow an individual to stay," said Joe Caffarelli, director of residence life for William Paterson.

Students may live on campus, for additional fees, during a summer session if they are registered for at least three credits during that session, Caffarelli said.

Other New Jersey colleges have their own housing policies.

For Rutgers University, "cases like that (Livingston's) are very rare, but we are able to resolve them on a case-by-case basis," said Pam Orel, a Rutgers spokeswoman.

Better accommodation
Rowan University tries to accommodate students "on a case by case basis," as well, said Joe Cardona, the University's spokesman.

At Ramapo College "one or two students" per year find themselves in situations like Livingston's, said Bonnie Franklin, a spokesperson for the college. Such students have to pay for housing. "We make arrangements for them to stay," Franklin said.

Dorms at Richard Stockton College remain open on all breaks except winter break, and even then if students have no place to go "we will find them a place in student housing," said Tim Kelly, spokesman for Richard Stockton.

The college's president, Herman J. Saatkamp Jr., also invites students to his home for holiday meals when "they don't have anywhere else to go for the holiday," Kelly said.

Stangler, of the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, said "even college officials" are surprised when they hear of students in situations like Livingston faced. "It's another byproduct of our failure in the systems to hook kids up with families or other permanent adults in their lives when they leave foster care," he said.

Livingston, who for now is waiting tables at Applebee's in Cherry Hill, contends he knows of no other foster kids from Camden who went to college. "Most times they just go homeless or to jail, or I knew one guy who went to the military," Livingston said.