A SUPPORT LANDSCAPE CALLING FOR CHANGE
Young people aging out of foster care face some of the highest risks of housing instability and homelessness in the United States. National and state research shows that youth with histories of foster or group home placement are significantly more likely to experience chronic and recurrent homelessness. Across studies, between one-third and nearly half of youth who age out of foster care will experience homelessness by their mid-twenties, a rate many times higher than their peers.
Sauer Family Foundation and Wilder Research (2025) found that in Minnesota, 42% of youth experiencing homelessness report an out-of-home placement history, and many first experience homelessness as early as age 13. The research also found that in Minnesota 71% of youth with foster care histories meet the definition of long-term homelessness, and many cycle through multiple living situations within short periods of time. This instability is not episodic—it is patterned and persistent. Youth with out-of-home placement histories experience homelessness earlier, more frequently, and for longer durations than their peers. They also show disproportionate rates of involvement with the criminal legal system, early parenting, mental health challenges, and underemployment. Structural inequities further compound these risks, with higher rates of homelessness among African American youth, Indigenous youth, and LGBTQ+ youth.
These outcomes are not the result of individual failure; they clearly reflect conditions (both systematic and situational) that make sustained stability extraordinarily difficult during the transition to adulthood - conditions that existed five years ago when PERIS Hill was created and continue to adversely affect youth aging out of the foster system today.
Condition 1 : An Absence of Familial Support & Safety Nets
For many young people, the moment they leave foster care coincides with the abrupt withdrawal of structure, relationships, and support. At an age when most peers rely on family for housing, financial backup, guidance, and forgiveness for missteps, young people exiting care are often expected to navigate adulthood independently—and immediately. The margin for error is small, and the consequences of early missteps can be lasting. Longitudinal research has consistently shown that the period immediately following exit from care is one of the highest-risk windows for homelessness, reflecting the abrupt withdrawal of support rather than a gradual transition to independence.
Condition 2 : Fragmented Assistance
The personal challenges youth aging out of the foster care face are further compounded by a deeply fragmented service landscape. Young adults transitioning out of foster care are frequently required to engage with multiple systems at once: housing subsidies, Extended Foster Care (EFC), Medicaid (MA), mental health providers, Independent Living Services (ILS), education and tuition supports, workforce programs, and income assistance such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Each comes with its own acronyms, eligibility rules, timelines, reporting requirements, and measures of success. What is legible to systems often feels opaque and abstract to the young people expected to navigate them. This fragmentation is not new. Research on foster care placements has long documented a shared experience of disconnection and breakdown—where miscommunication, mistrust, and a lack of coordinated response leave young people and caregivers without the support needed to stabilize during moments of crisis.
Condition 3 : Unaligned Assistance
While most of the support systems available to youth as they age out claim to operate in the best interest of young people, they are rarely aligned. One system may prioritize rapid employment, another school enrollment, another clinical compliance, and another cost containment or risk management. Success in one arena can inadvertently jeopardize eligibility or success in another. As a result, young people are often asked to hold together a set of expectations that are not only complex, but sometimes fundamentally in tension with one another. These challenges are compounded by structural barriers to economic stability. Only 26% of youth with foster care histories experiencing homelessness are employed, and many face obstacles related to education, transportation, documentation, and mental health. Educational disruption, limited work histories, and untreated behavioral health needs further narrow pathways to stable income and housing.
In practice, the fragmentation and lack of alignment can look like a young person juggling appointments, paperwork, and compliance expectations across agencies that rarely communicate. Supports arrive piecemeal, if at all.
Condition 4 : Current Trauma Often a Prerequisite for Support
Many of the supports available to youth aging out of the foster system are frequently triggered by crisis. Housing assistance, in particular, is often inaccessible until a young person has already experienced homelessness—reinforcing a reactive approach that prioritizes triage over long-term stability. Under Minnesota’s Continuum of Care (CoC) system, most federally funded housing resources are reserved for individuals who meet strict definitions of homelessness, often requiring documentation of literal homelessness or chronic housing instability before assistance can be accessed. This means that young people exiting foster care—despite being at high and well-documented risk—frequently do not qualify for support until they have already entered crisis. The result is a system that is structurally oriented toward response rather than prevention.
Further exacerbating the impact this has on ex-foster youth, the “one door” system applied in Minnesota means the needs of youth exiting foster care are grouped with the needs of the broader homeless population. As a result, there can be no preference given to ex-fosters, or youth in general - every homeless person is treated in the same way, with those considered most in immediate need being offered support first. As a result, support becomes much more about triage and homelessness response than it does about homelessness prevention, and eligibility tied not to risk, but to demonstrated instability.
The Need for Something New Was Clear
PERIS Hill emerged in response to these conditions: a recognition that preventing homelessness among young people exiting foster care required more than housing units or services alone. It required an environment that treats stability, dignity, and relationship as foundational conditions—not rewards to be earned through compliance.
What had been missing from the support landscape was a model that offered stable housing before crisis, integrated support without coercion, and allowed young people the time and space needed to heal, learn, and grow.
When we opened PERIS Hill in 2021, it was the only model of its kind in the country: a youth housing program with philanthropically funded onsite services embedded within a mixed-income, mixed-age apartment community. The vision was ambitious and deeply values-driven: a beautiful, integrated housing community where young people aging out of foster care could build stability, autonomy, and belonging—without stigma, surveillance, or coercion. At the center of that vision were dignity, choice, and a belief in young people’s capacity to grow when given time, trust, and support.
Intentionally, we stepped away from the requirements of coordinated entry, forgoing the funding (and restrictions) that come with it. Instead, we embraced a direct referral model, leaning on partners to connect youth in need to PERIS - prioritizing prevention and support above all else.
Five years in, and we’re not only seeing, but have independent proof of the positive results being achieved as a result of our choices. Our five year external case study of PERIS Hill has tracked progress and notes that, currently over 90% of our residents are in school or employed and creating housing stability. That’s an amazing achievement. Something we can truly be proud of.
Now, at a time of increased funding instability and decreased political commitment, we’re exploring ways we can share and replicate the PERIS Hill model. Our hope is that by sharing our experience and learnings we can continue to inspire further shifts in the supportive landscape and dramatically improve the outlook for youth leaving the foster care system.
If you’d like to learn more, help, or integrate some of our learnings into your own community, please get in contact.
Written by Carla Godwin - Director | PERIS Foundation
& Nora F. Murphy - PhD