Unlike her friends, when Izel Casillas, 19, a sophomore at the University of California, Davis, moved into her first apartment, she did it without the support of her immediate family. She and her older sister had been in the foster care system since being removed from their home at ages 14 and 15.
This summer, however, Casillas learned she had been awarded $3,000 as part of a recently launched state program that provides money for longtime foster youth and low-income children who lost a parent due to the coronavirus.
For Casillas, the money came at a time when she needed it, she said, giving her a sense of control and financial support she hadn’t quite experienced before. “It does make you feel seen — makes you not feel as alone,” she said.
In May, four years after the program was first created by the state Legislature, California launched the Hope, Opportunity, Perseverance and Empowerment, or HOPE, for Children program. More than 56,000 young Californians are eligible for $3,000 in a trust account to use however they choose. The program was created to provide a safety net for two groups of young people who may enter adulthood without parental support.
For young people without parents or financial support, the first steps into adulthood often look different than they do for their peers, said AJ Johnson with the John Burton Advocates for Youth, an advocacy organization for foster and homeless youth.
“It looks like debt. It looks like homelessness,” Johnson said. “It looks like pausing school to take on work to get by. It looks like living in unsafe situations. And what this money means is that you can use it to get to safety [and] use it to be relieved of the burden of debt.”
Program provides $3,000 in seed money that can grow over time
The state Legislature created the accounts in 2022, during a budget-surplus year amid the pandemic. At the time, thousands of children were losing their parents to COVID-19, while California was also seeing high rates of foster youth aging out of the system and facing homelessness, advocates say.
Run by the state treasurer’s office, the program provides $3,000 in interest-bearing accounts to eligible young people. Foster youth qualify if they spend over 1 1/2 years in foster care, whether consecutive or not, or if their family reunification services are terminated. Low-income youth who lost a parent to COVID-19 contracted during the pandemic also qualify. They can access the funds between ages 18 and 26.
“So, the idea behind the HOPE account was to create a way for these youth, who are some of our most vulnerable in society, to be able to have some seed funding to start their life,” said Cassandra DiBenedetto, the acting executive director for HOPE.
Going deeper
HOPE recipients also have access to financial education and free confidential financial planning services with the accounts.
Youth under 18 on Sept. 27, 2022, when the law was enacted, who are longtime foster youth or low-income, COVID-19-bereaved youth are eligible.
Those not yet 18 who already qualify can apply for and open the account.
Click here to find out if you’re eligible.
The money is not restricted to spending on college, career training, starting a business or buying a house, said Shimica Gaskins, president and CEO of the policy advocacy organization End Child Poverty California, which worked with the Legislature on creating the program. Young people can decide for themselves how to use the money based on what they most need, she said.
“There’s something very powerful about telling a child that this money is set aside for your future, and it belongs to you,” Gaskins said. “That’s more than money. It’s a message about their potential, about their opportunity. And that future doesn’t have to be tied to just four things.”
Although the program was signed into law in 2022, it took four years to launch. Some of that time was spent working to set up the program, since data on foster youth is private. Advocates and state officials also consulted national experts and young people about how the program should work. There were unforeseen delays as well.
Last year, the governor reallocated $40 million of $100 million originally designated for the program to help close the state’s budget gap, for example.
Youth must apply
The money is not automatically distributed to those who are eligible, and getting the word out is one of the program’s greatest challenges. Members of the HOPE team have promoted the accounts at foster youth resource fairs, through webinars with trained volunteers and court-appointed advocates and in conversations with dependency attorneys and probation officers.
HOPE has also partnered with community groups and schools, including the Youth Law Center, John Burton Advocates for Youth, organizations that conduct outreach to families affected by COVID-19, and youth programs at colleges and universities. The state Department of Social Services sent out an informational notice to counties so social workers and others would know about the program and how it works.
That’s how 20-year-old Nevaeh Williams, who recently aged out of foster care, learned of HOPE. Entering the foster care system at age 10, Williams was eligible because she remained in foster care, living with family members, until age 18.
For Williams, the application process was straightforward. She applied in June and got her approval email in August, within the 90-day window. She requested her disbursement in early September and is now waiting for the money to arrive, which should take about 30 days.
She’s had her own apartment since shortly after turning 18. By that time, she’d become a teen parent of two. She works as a certified nursing assistant in Los Angeles County while participating in a bridge program to become a registered nurse.
She plans to use the HOPE money to redecorate her 4-year-old daughter’s room and buy her 2-year-old son toys, blocks and flash cards.
“It’s like a relief because, day to day, for most people, it doesn’t just happen in a lump sum like that,” she said. “I pay basically $2,000 in rent, and I still have all these other side bills. I don’t just have a big lump sum at once to do stuff like that.”
‘Freedom’
Similar to other programs that provide free money to help young people, HOPE can be underutilized if there’s a lack of awareness or a new process to navigate.
So far, 2,243 applications have been submitted, and there have been over 650 approvals with more than $200,000 distributed. One young woman used the money as a down payment on a car, said HOPE’s DiBenedetto. Another used it to put a security deposit on an apartment.
Casillas at UC Davis plans to leave her $3,000 untouched and let it grow in the trust account — until she needs it.
“I’m not going to touch that money,” she said.
“It feels like a lot of freedom, but also with that, it helps you so much, especially with emergencies and anything you need — an apartment, rent, transportation, all of that. I think it’s an amazing feeling to know that I’m supported in that way.”
This story was originally published by EdSource. Sign up for their daily newsletter.
