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Nonprofit gives foster youth high quality homes
Foster youth are more likely to become homeless after aging out of the system compared to their peers, but one program provides for young adults in foster care with a comfortable place to live, resources, and the tools they need to enter adulthood.
OAKLAND, Calif. - Foster youth are more likely to become homeless after aging out of the system compared to their peers, but one program provides young adults in foster care with a comfortable place to live, resources, and the tools they need to enter adulthood.
Black Women Invest Too, Luxurious Fostering (BWIT) is a non-profit statewide program that supports at-risk youth in the East Bay.
The founder, Dr. Audra Stance, said the standard of housing for foster youth wasn't high enough, so she sought to address it by providing higher-quality living for the young people who deserve it most.
If you're between the ages of 18 and 21 and are coming from foster care, you can have a comfortable place to call home through BWIT, including teens with kids, pets, and criminal histories.
It’s fully furnished independent living for young people who might otherwise be homeless.
"Being able to work with them and get through to them and showing them that life is grand on the other side, that’s what made me have the heart to be where I am today," said Stance.
Stance said she began as a foster mom three years ago because she wanted to give back, and she could relate to at-risk youth, having a rough childhood of her own.
"Just being in the line of work of prostitution, selling drugs, being in and out of jail at a young age, it made me to where I am now. It made me want to help as many as I can."
She started BWIT with just three teens in 2022. Now, she said she serves 40 people with housing up and down the state, including in Oakland, Stockton, Sacramento, and Los Angeles. In Oakland alone, she has 15 locations serving 19 young adults.
"All of our homes are nice, and they’re luxurious, and it’s a home environment is to feel comfortable and safe," she said. "If I can’t live there, they can’t live there."
"She comes in with love because our youth have suffered from so much trauma and so much disappointment and having limited attachment, Dr. Stance has a way of attaching herself making them feel valued," said Emmitt Neal, a social worker with Child Protective Services in San Francisco.
The Children’s Law Center of California reports more than 60,000 kids are in foster care in the state, with thousands in the Bay Area.
According to the National Foster Youth Institute, one in four foster youth become homeless within four years of aging out.
Transitional housing programs like Stance’s are built as interventions to provide young people with the tools to begin adulthood.
One East Oakland teen who goes by Arrow for privacy said she got into legal trouble when she was 17, which would have disqualified her from other transitional housing programs.
"Dr. Stance got me a lot more opportunities and helped clear my name. I probably would not have a house right now," she said.
Arrow credits BWIT for helping her get into vocational school. She said she is close to graduating from culinary school and her dreams of opening in business in London are a reality.
"Maybe start up my own, probably bake shop," she said.
Now, Stance is working on doubling her intake by buying a high-rise that will house 40 more young adults.
Stance is also hoping to expand so she can take in young people up to the age of 25.
If you’d like to donate furniture or funds, visit here.