Melania delivers for Austin's homeless
I'm not kidding.
Today I've got some good news on homelessness. Incredibly, that good news comes courtesy of the state of Texas and the Trump administration.
In his newsletter yesterday, Mayor Kirk Watson highlighted an area of apparent bipartisan compassion: youth homelessness.
Every year, thousands of young people leave foster care and enter adulthood carrying burdens most of us can barely imagine. Many have experienced trauma. Many have moved from placement to placement. Many have lived through instability at the very moment children most need stability.
And then, at age 18 or 21, we expect them to navigate adulthood largely on their own. We shouldn't be surprised by what happens next.
Nationally, young people aging out of foster care face significantly higher risks of homelessness, unemployment, poor health outcomes, and involvement with the criminal justice system. In Texas, those outcomes are often even worse.
Indeed, one analysis found that 59% of young adults on the streets in Austin had contact with the foster system growing up. I spoke about this issue with Lifeworks executive director Liz Schoenfeld in a January episode of my podcast.
