NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Nightly News Films: Aging out of foster care

Episode Date: October 13, 2022

NBC News’ Antonia Hylton meets Christina Abraham in the months surrounding her 21st birthday as she ages out of the foster care system and needs to find her own place to live in New York City.

Everybody looks forward to their 21st birthday, but in my case, I'm old enough to not have anywhere to live. I'm old enough to be subjected to homelessness. Christina Abraham is a child of the foster care system. Born in Harlem, she's lived in New York City her entire life. Her 21st birthday looms like a day of reckoning. Over a period of five months, we visited with Christina repeatedly, learning about her life in foster care as she prepared to age out of it. Did any of your foster parents treat you like you were their actual child?

No. Not one? Nope. The best experience I've had with a foster parent is a foster parent who did nothing. I'd rather you do nothing than actively make my life harder. How did that change you, living with people who weren't caring for you, feeling that sense of instability all the time? It made me feel terrible.

It made me feel like I didn't matter. I struggled with my mental health. I struggled with depression. I was diagnosed with depression at 10 years old. And to feel like, you know, I could die tomorrow and nobody would know. Nobody cares about me. And that is a terrible feeling,

to feel like you're in a world full of billions of people and your life does not matter to anybody. It made me feel like, you know what, let me please people so that I can have somewhere to stay. Because in foster care, you're working on eggshells. If your foster parent doesn't like you, they can just say, hey, leave my house. But you can't say, hey, I don't really like that foster parent, or hey, can I get another one? You don't say, hey, I don't really like that foster parent, or hey, can I get another one? You don't have that privilege. Christina doesn't know if the group home will let her stay past her 21st birthday,

when in New York, like in most states, foster youth are supposed to leave the system. Last year in New York City, more than 500 young adults aged out. She hasn't found an apartment she can afford. What possibilities are you looking at right now? I'm looking at nothing, really. Even though I want everything, I'm looking at nothing. I know these streets like the back of my hand. Christina wants to return to Harlem, steeped in rich Black history despite the pain she endured here. This is where it all started. It's where she entered foster care after an abusive childhood.

Christina became a permanent ward of the state at eight. She remembers her mom leaving her alone here. Her mother says officials separated her from Christina, and she was not allowed to say goodbye. You're just a little person. Did you understand what was happening? Unfortunately, I did, because this had been the second time now. And to know that for the second time now. And to know

that for the second time in less than 10 years, my life would be like this. Yeah, it was just something I'll never forget. And everything was different after that point. I have never known freedom from the system since that day. Christina spends most of her free time doing this, messaging landlords, asking if they'll take a rental voucher she received from the city. The market is competitive under normal circumstances. The average rental price of a studio apartment in New York City is upwards of $2,700. And she suspects landlords see her as a bruised apple at the bottom of the bunch. Between calling and emailing, like I'll email so many, so many, so many people. You can see all the addresses.

So many, so many addresses. Hello, I would like to move as soon as possible. Hello, I would like to move as soon as possible. Hello, I would like to move as soon as possible. Hello, I would like to... They never got back to me, as you can see. After all that work, empty-handed. Hours.

It takes hours a day. Hours a day, every single day. 21 comes and goes without a party. Christina spends the night sleeping in a relative's abandoned apartment with no electricity, anything to avoid the group home. She finds a studio apartment in Harlem, but it fails inspection three times. Seven weeks have now passed since her birthday. We are in a situation where my voucher could potentially expire. I would lose the lease on my apartment. But meeting with us that day, things are starting to look up. She tells us she might

soon be able to move into the new studio. Today we are going to see the apartment I should be moving into in the next 10 days. That's what we're gonna do. What do you think is gonna be running through your mind when you walk through the door? Like does it feel like home? Whatever that means I guess but it like I'm excited like do my outlets work? It's like is everything toilet flushes? Toilet flushes? Outlets work? Do I have good service in there like i mean even if i didn't i'm still gonna move in but whatever okay top floor we have a nice little island dishwasher and this is the bathroom how are you feeling though i mean on the one hand cause for celebration but you've also had these moments where you thought everything was set and something fell through. Honestly, I feel less happy than I should feel because I am reserved because I know that things can be set in stone and then the rug can be pulled under you at

the last moment. Christina says the city foster agency failed to submit her housing paperwork in time. She says in part because she's had six different overwhelmed caseworkers in the span of a year. She has to ask the group home to let her stay longer again. We catch up on a video call. What's it like to still be there? Disappointing, honestly, but extremely disappointing. I kind of had like a breakdown in a sense to have that point be consistently pushed back. It messed with me because I felt like, you know, am I ever going to get this apartment? Are you kind of angry? I am. I'm very angry because I feel like the worst part about this

whole system and my situation is that I am a human life that hangs in the balance. What people do directly impacts what I can do. I can't sleep anywhere. I can't go anywhere. I want to go sleep anywhere. I can't put my head down in my own place. One camera. Public areas in the home are under constant surveillance. Christina says girls get into physical fights every week.

She can't open a window and breathe fresh air without an alarm going off. What? Oh yeah, here we go. We reached out to New York City's Administration for Children's Services, or ACS. In a statement, they said youth reception centers have a variety of safety measures in place to protect those living inside the facility. Every day, Christina hangs a curtain in front of her bedroom door for privacy. If you lift it up, there's a window. And so anybody who walks by can look inside of your room at any time. These are some of my suitcases I used to keep closings. And I always keep a thousand bottles of water. I know it looks crazy,

but on the weekends, we run out of water and sometimes food. They just let water and food run out? Only supervisors have access to the fridge, and supervisors aren't in on the weekends. And neither is the chef. So on the weekends, we go hungry. ACS told NBC News, we expect youth reception centers to serve food of good quality and sufficient quantity, and that refrigerators should not be locked, and youth should not need a supervisor to access food of good quality and sufficient quantity, and that refrigerators should not be locked, and youth should not need a supervisor to access food. When you first moved in there, what was going through your mind? I was kind of distraught that I ended up here,

because my whole foster care, I guess, life or career, you can say, I tried my best not to end up in group homes, not to end up in kind homes, not to end up in kind of things that I saw as like pits of despair. Once you get here, it's kind of like you're stuck here. And then you kind of go through the shuffle of between this group home and this group home, between this group home and this group home, between this group home and this group home. Somebody pulled the fire alarm. Christina tells us someone has just pulled the fire alarm, forcing everyone to evacuate. I prefer not to be here, like at all.

But if I am here, then I definitely do stay in my room. I'm like one of those persons that I'm just going to stay in my room. Because outside of my room, crazy things happen. I understand the need for the metal detectors. I understand the need to follow people with every room they go into. I understand the need for having to request for a real fork or a knife or a blender or anything sharp or a hot comb or like hairspray. Like I understand that, but it's like, then again, it's like, it's crazy. Cause like at the end of the day, it varies. And it's every single

day. It's every single day that is dehumanizing. There's not a day, as soon as I walk into the place, I already feel less than. Do you think you're ready for this? I know I have to be. I know that I'm more capable than most because I've been conditioned to the situation. We're listening to say, tell us what it is you want. Overseeing the city's foster care youth is Jess Danhauser, Commissioner of the Administration for Children's Services. He can't comment on specific cases, but did address broader criticisms. We've seen some of the conditions of the group homes and had descriptions of violence, of a lack of privacy.

Is that safe and secure? We absolutely would not accept that being a place where we want young people to be in a place that's not safe or secure. My whole goal as commissioner is to make this system more humane. That goal includes those leaving the system like Christina. We're also providing supports through coaches. We all thrive through interdependence, so we're building out this extra support through coaches all the way until 26 years old. Why are we seeing so many Black and Latino kids caught up in the system and stuck in it until this ending point?

It goes to the very beginning. We know that we get more reports for young people of color, for families of color. We have a project that we are working on to make sure that who we're investigating really reflects where there's concern, is not biased. If someone needs support and it comes to our attention, we go out with a supportive lens. It is not an investigation. His team is looking for new ways to provide financial support to foster youth. Are the resources that are being provided to these young people,

do they match the reality of a New York that has a competitive housing situation, costs are rising? If you're a 21-year-old aging out of the system, how are you realistically actually getting on your feet? Yeah, I think there's a couple ways. One is we are reorienting our college program so that where young people want to go to college, the resources will follow them. For young people who are moving into housing, thankfully the city has made a commitment to a voucher program here that young people have access to, and it is at market rates. Two and a half months after turning 21, Christina finally leaves the

group home for good. She had the keys to the Harlem unit, put all her possessions into trash bags and left with about $150 to her name. This was supposed to be her big leap, her first time having a place to call home, commuting to her first full-time job at a fashion merchandiser. Are you all right? I've been better, but I'm feeling better, too. What's going on? Right now, I'm trying to get furniture for my apartment. I have no bed. To help get her on her feet, a charity called Hearts to Homes

gives Christina supplies. Linens, dish soap, a cutlery set. These can be expensive. I mean, this alone. Yeah. The charity's executive director, Mary Teresa McComb, reviews Christina's wishlist. Christina checks off most of the boxes. The grand total, $2,344. Think of this as a virtual housewarming. So we want to give the young people the same kinds of things that we would give our own children if we were helping them set up an apartment. In this case, we're trying to give them the dignity of choice, right? They haven't had a lot of choice when they were in foster care about anything really. And now that they're going to be independent for the first time, we give them this wish list and we say, you choose what you want, whatever it is that you need.

How great is this need? Oh, it's tremendous. Prior to Hearts to Homes being available, youth would be in the system, the foster care system, and then they would age out. They would not have enough resources to properly furnish a home, and they would go into these empty apartments with maybe a mattress on the floor and a dresser and not much else. Christina has no credit card,

no credit score. She has no bed. She spends $71.75 to set up Wi-Fi. The final $78 has to cover almost three weeks of subway rides to work and most meals before her paycheck on September 7th. Are you missing meals? Yes. Yes, I am. I am most times not having breakfast or lunch, but I will have dinner. Are you sleeping okay? Some days. Some days. Some days.

Sometimes I'm excited to start my job so I wake up with a smile on my face. I'll be it off the floor, but still. Other days, I'm tired. She's also a survivor and determined. 99 days after she turned 21, Christina invites us to see the very first home she could call her own. Hi.

Hey. This is your place. Yes. It happened. It did. No more fears that she might be left homeless, no more nights tossing and turning on the floor. A new bed and food in the fridge feel like a triumph.

How long have you been waiting for this moment? The short version, maybe six months. The long version, 21 years. When you look out at this version of New York and you're in your personal space, what's the message you receive? Harlem. Born again in the same neighborhood, this time with the chance to chart her own path. Antonia Hilton, NBC News, New York.