Utah has long been an innovator when it comes to addressing homelessness. We pioneered the Housing First program in 2005, which led to a 90% decrease in chronic homelessness by 2015. However, homelessness is making a comeback in the Beehive State. According to Project Human Dignity, the unhoused population has nearly doubled since 2019, and with the current housing crisis, it’s hard to see how that trend will reverse in the near future.
If we want to find a solution that lasts longer than a decade, it might be a good idea to take a good hard look at Utah’s foster care system.
Roughly 50% of the homeless population has been in foster care. And according to the National Foster Youth Institute, an estimated 20% of foster youth become homeless when they’re emancipated at the age of 18.
The war against homelessness isn’t being waged in the Utah’s streets. It’s being waged within the walls of Utah’s foster homes.
If homelessness is a war, foster care is the trenches. It’s where the difficult, sweaty, glory-less work happens. I should know. I help lead Havenwood Academy, a residential treatment center full of over 40 teens, many of them former foster care kids. And let me tell you — it has its days.
Days where teens decide your face would make a better punching bag.
Nights when they wake up screaming, reliving the traumas of a childhood you and I can’t imagine.
Weeks where they won’t eat unless you’re there to witness every single bite.
But that’s not all I’ve seen at Havenwood Academy. I’ve also seen teens beat the odds and get their bachelor’s degree. I’ve seen them break the cycle of broken homes by creating a stable one of their own. I’ve seen them become high-functioning contributors to society.
By the time you see a middle-aged person mumbling to themselves at a stoplight, the battle has often sadly, tragically, been lost. It was fought in their childhood. They’re the ones who slipped through the cracks. The majority of them will be chronically homeless for years to come.
The productive, winnable fight against homelessness is in our foster care system. But right now, we’re losing. Utah is in the midst of a historic shortage of foster families. There are currently 1,756 kids in the Utah foster system, but only 822 licensed foster families.
This 25-year low just prompted Gov. Cox and first lady Abby Cox to plead with Utahns to become foster parents. “It is our duty to care for (foster children) until their parents can do so. And we need you now more than ever.”
It’s an uncomfortable, impossible task. We’d much rather toss some loose change out the window than upend our current life plans by becoming a foster parent. But the cold hard truth is that compared to loving and committed foster homes, treatment centers like Havenwood and Utah’s Housing First program are Band-Aid solutions. By fostering, you could be the real one.
Dr. Ken Huey is the CEO of The Hope Group, which is the owner of Havenwood Academy, a residential treatment center that specializes in giving treatment to abused young women, many coming from foster care.