LA County expands guaranteed income program to include thousands of people transitioning out of foster care

More than 2,000 L.A. County foster youth will begin receiving guaranteed income payments following a vote Tuesday to include those transitioning out of care when they're between 18 and 21 years old.

The Breathe program expansion, according to Supervisor Holly Mitchell’s motion, is designed to continue supporting foster youth at a time when they are particularly vulnerable to homelessness, poverty, crime and not finishing their education.

“We know Breathe works and expanding what works just makes sense,” Supervisor Lindsey P. Horvath said at Tuesday’s board meeting, where the resolution to expand the program passed unanimously.

The program officially launched in 2022 to give monthly payments of $1,000 to 1,000 low-income L.A. County residents for three years in hopes of improving their economic well being. A year later, the board moved to expand the program to include 200 former foster youth, providing them with a monthly $1,000 check for two years.

In L.A. County, people may be eligible to re-enter the foster care system up to their 21st birthday. However, the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) will automatically enroll foster youth within the 18 to 21 age range when it starts this fall.

Foster youth

As of June, more than 21,000 children in L.A. County were living in foster care, with just over 2,500 of them 18 years or older.

Brandon Nichols, director of the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services, said the challenges these youth face are further exacerbated by the region’s high cost of living and difficulties in finding entry-level jobs that can also pay the bills.

“I worry about what happens to our youth once they’ve left our system and I want them to have every opportunity possible to succeed,” Nichols said.

He added that the expansion of Breathe will allow foster youth to “take their first, sturdy steps, toward living on their own.”

Details of the expanded Breathe program

The stipends must be used toward “extracurricular and enrichment activities that are designed to enhance the foster child or non-minor dependent’s skills, abilities, self-esteem, relationships, and overall well-being and healing,” the motion states.

The new program will serve two cohorts of youth. The first group of 18- and 19-year-olds in foster care will receive $500 monthly for 18 months.

The second group is foster youth between 19 and 21 receiving $1,500 quarterly for an 18-month period. Once these participants age out of foster care at age 21 they will stop receiving stipends.

Both groups will have access to counseling and workshops designed to help them navigate careers, finances and housing before and after leaving foster care.

The program will also contribute to existing research on how regular stipends affect participant behavior such as school completion and civic engagement and help inform future decisions the state of California may take.