Sacramento – Assembly Majority Leader Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles), chair of the Assembly Select Committee on Foster Care and Assemblymember Bill Maze (R- Visalia) issue the following statement regarding Senate Republicans voting against Assembly Bill 845, which funded transitional housing for the California’s foster youth:

“It is very unfortunate that politics played a part in the Senate Republicans vote against this bill that would fully fund transitional housing for foster youth. Assembly Republicans unanimously voted for AB 845. The purpose of the bill was to keep the promise we made last year in the Legislature by providing $10 million dollars to help reduce the numbers of foster youth becoming homeless after emancipating out of the Foster Care System.

Based on last year’s commitment by the Legislature and the Administration, counties throughout the state opened beds with the understanding that the funds would be put through with the passage AB 845. The action today by the Senate will place foster youth in jeopardy of losing these placements.

When children are removed from home because of abuse or neglect, they become the responsibility of the State of California . The data has not changed. Nearly a third of foster youth will become homeless at some time within the first year after they leave the system at age 18. In California, recent studies has show up to 65 percent of California youth graduating from foster care were in need of safe and affordable housing at the time of graduation. Within two to four years after aging out of foster care, over 50 percent of former foster youth are unemployed, 40 percent are homeless, and 20 percent will be incarcerated. If we do not take care of these children as they exit the Foster Care System, this can result in their future involvement in the prison system. The average young person does not leave home and become fully self-sufficient until age 26, yet at age 18 the state of California expects foster youth to become entirely independent without any assistance.