Congresswoman Deborah Ross and other community leaders are working to help kids aging out of foster care.
Tuesday, she along with leaders at CASA and the Hope Center at Pullen announced $1 million in federal funding to help build a new apartment building called the Hope Village at Method.
The nine-bedroom affordable housing facility will be placed off of ?Method Road in Raleigh. It is specifically geared toward teens aging out of the foster care system.
“Wake County is a growing community and housing affordability is a real problem,” said Representative Ross.
Meredith Yuckman, Executive Director of Hope Center at Pullen, says housing like this is important.
Studies estimate a quarter of former foster kids experience homelessness within four years of aging out of the system.
“In Wake County, there are between 30 and 40 young people who turn 18 in the foster care system every year, so for each one of those young people there is a myriad of needs,” said Yuckman.
Foster kids will work with the organization to get vouchers to access housing with rent being 30 percent of their income.
“To have their own apartment for the first time in their lives is often the first place that our young people are able to get out of crisis mode thinking and think about what they want their life to look like and be able to start working toward their goals,” said Yuckman.
CASA is planning to begin construction on the facility later this summer with completion expected by the summer of 2025.