By Erica Hellerstein, The Mercury News, January 13, 2020
When Dontae Lartigue left foster care right before his 19th birthday in 2009, finding housing in Santa Clara County was one of his biggest obstacles. He struggled to find places he could afford on his $12 an hour salary at Walmart, and with a limited income and no rental history, he found landlords were often wary of returning his calls. So Lartigue, who is now 29 years old, ended up couch surfing or sleeping in his car.
“Right now when a foster youth like me emancipates, I don’t have credit, I don’t have enough income, and I don’t have rental history,” he says. “So most of the time I’ve already got my back against the wall.”
Santa Clara County is considering a bold new pilot program that could make the transition for people like Lartigue easier: giving young people aging out of foster care a universal basic income.
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