Basic income may be coming to former foster youth who have aged out of the system without finding permanent placement with families.
State Sen. Dave Cortese announced legislation that would provide supplemental income to the state’s nearly 3,000 former foster youth who no longer get foster care support and resources by age 21.
Senate Bill 739 would require the State Department of Social Services to provide those California residents direct monthly payments of $1,000 for three years.
Former foster youth aged 18-24 are often disenfranchised and face significant disadvantages, according to a 2018 University of Chicago study.
They are more likely to have unfavorable employment outcomes, physical and mental health issues as well as low attainment rates of secondary and postsecondary education.
Those struggles have only been exacerbated by the pandemic, Cortese said.
“During a time of such uncertainty, unconditional basic income will provide stability to our foster youth transitioning out of foster care and into adulthood, so that they can advance their social, economic, and educational outcomes,” Cortese said.
Cortese pointed to a study by University of California at Irvine that found on average, “children who have been in the U.S. foster care system are at a significantly higher risk of mental and physical health problems — ranging from learning disabilities, developmental delays and depression to behavioral issues, asthma and obesity — than children who haven’t been in foster care.”
The state provides extended foster care from ages 18-21, which provides additional stipends and resources; and studies have shown that this extension improves the likelihood of favorable outcomes.
But the same study also shows that the abrupt cut off of resources on their 21st birthday has its own set of negative consequences, according to the University of Chicago study.
21 comments
In and Out Burger is hiring starting at 15.00 an hour.And so are a lot of other businesses.So let’s just give the young people money and tell them it’s ok you don’t have to work.You stupid Politicians make me sick.
AMEN
Yes, because having 12K a year to survive in California will make them fat wealthy leaches who will never do anything else in life because of a communist hand out. Do you honestly think that cutting off literal orphans will suddenly make them model citizens? These kids have likely went through more traumatic events in their short lif than either of us in our entire lives.
We’re talking about only 3,000 kids in the entire state who were abandoned by their parents. You’re literally condemning orphaned kids who never received a permanent home who had to face abuse, mental health problems, behavioral/learning disabilities, and living in a non-stable environment You really expect them to become fully independent when they turn the magical number of 18? Yet, we don’t have that expectation of the rich kids of WC/LaMorinda.
@Pyrrhus You must not have read the article. They currently receive benefits until age 21. The desire is to extend those benefits, including a $1,000/month cash payment, to beyond age 21.
At what age do you think a young person should be asked to stand on their own?
@Pyrrhus I would add, you seem to have a problem with the world being unfair. Well, here’s a news flash: the world is unfair. It’s always been unfair and will remain so. I wish I had the benefit of growing up wealthy. I wish my parents did not have the mentality of the impoverished, but they both came from broken families and were raised during the Great Depression, which set their worldviews.
Life in unfair. The challenge of life is to overcome our problems and be successful in spite of our upbringing and/or handicaps.
The handicapped should receive a helping hand, but it doesn’t necessarily have to come at the expense of the taxpayers and doesn’t necessarily have to last forever.
This will eventually pave the way for orphan children to be included.
What orphan children? Abortion put an end to that problem.
And where is all of this money going to come from. Does Newsom have his own printing press to produce all this income other than raping the few remaining Californian’s who have not moved away yet?
Great! They are starting to groom the most vulnerable of our society towards socialism. Don’t teach them to work hard for anything. Make them feel helpless and dependent on the state. This is one of the reasons we are in a lockdown. Not for virus that 99% won’t kill you. It’s because people won’t stand up and say no to the masks, the social distancing and the lockdown. Just sitting there scared of the flu and of everyone else. Such a sad state our society is in.
I saw a hilarious meme the other day that is so true:
Q: “I’ve notice that everyone who owns a boat “seems” to be a Trump supporter.”
A: That’s because there’s currently no government program that gives boats away. You have to work for a boat.
So people who don’t support Trump all get government handouts? There are plenty of boat owners who don’t support Trump. And there are plenty of middle class and upper class people who don’t support Trump and also don’t live off government handouts. And there are Trump supporters who get government handouts as well. Do you think the Trump supporters returned their economic recovery payments? Stop making assumptions.
I can understand how someone at 21 with no family feels. However wouldn’t they need a different type of support than money. Seems like they would need a base of sorts but they should get a job not handed money.
Pyrrhus If you like this idea so much put up your own money up! They have a thing for this sort of thing it’s called charity. the government doesn’t seem to even know how to run basic maintenance in a state of California. We have way more priorities than this and I don’t feel sorry for them a lot of people get a bad hand dealt in life and don’t get bailed out…..not to mention as another poster said you’re teaching them Socialism. that’s evil Socialism has killed more people than any other post modern government system. I suggest you read some books on this modern Hegelian communist poison you espouse.
The ultimate fall back solution progressive liberals use, throw your tax dollars at their mistakes, . . . . in hopes they’ll go away.
Is this bill an admission of FAILURE by state of CA ? ? ?
What about the almost 48,000 high school dropouts CA has EACH YEAR ?
WHY does this sate continue to graduate students with a severely deficient to non existent job skill set ?
We’ve been shown another failure of leadership by newsom and his hangers on.
There is no fix for the foster care system. Foster children deserve to be properly cared for. Bless the kids born into that life. No one knows the answer…
The state has failed and the response is give them money. Our public schools should offer personal finance classes and job skill training in high school. Work with local businesses to offer seniors internships. We do not need to take care of these kids with more money. Teach them skills and they will be able to provide for themselves.
Give a person a fish you’ll feed them for a day; Teach them to fish and you’ll feed them for a lifetime.
The point of life isn’t to work. Also hard work doesn’t make you a good person.
You gave us two negatives. Perhaps you could provide positives. What is the purpose of life, and what are the ethics involved in avoiding effort in providing for yourself and others?
Hard work does make you a good person. It makes you self sufficient. Makes you a great person.
@a, Really cant take a joke can you? Lighten up it was funny. And for the most part pretty well hit the nail on the head. Trump supporters believe in hard work with little government hand outsi so the joke was pretty true to life that’s what made it funny.
My Great Grandmother was raised in an orphanage. She graduated from the Orphanage at the age of 18 with a teachers degree. Maybe we need to look at our system for caring for orphaned children.
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