Richmond housing summit targets foster-care programs

LaVon Trevelle was quite succinct in summing up life in a homeless shelter.

"It is rough," she said yesterday during the Greater Richmond Housing Summit: Youth Aging out of Foster Care. "It is something you wouldn't want your worst enemy to go to."

Trevelle was part of a daylong series of seminars and talks put together by the University of Richmond and Faces of Virginia Families, a nonprofit group that works on foster care, adoption and other family life issues. Originally scheduled for UR's downtown campus, it was moved to the new Hilton Garden Inn on East Broad Street to accommodate an overflow crowd.

Trevelle and Elijah Gee told stories of life in foster care and after.

A panel of national experts talked about successful programs in Chicago, Cincinnati, New York and Oakland, Calif., that help people like Trevelle and Gee make a smooth transition into society after they grow too old for foster care.

The Richmond area does not have a comprehensive program to help young adults as they move out of foster care, typically at age 18. According to the panelists, most people nationwide fail in that transition.

Trevelle and Gee did and wound up homeless.

When she turned 18, Trevelle was asked to leave the foster-care program because of behavior issues. Three months shy of high school graduation, she dropped out of school and married.

"I got married for financial stability," she said.

The plan didn't work. Her husband was abusive, she said, and the challenges of raising two little girls kept her from settling into a stable routine. Seven months pregnant with her third child, she left, spending weeks in a hotel before winding up in a homeless shelter.

"It's hard when you have three kids," she said. "You're out there on your own."

Gee -- wiry, camera-shy and quite animated at the front of the room -- told of how being "hardheaded" cost him any chance at making a peaceful transition away from foster care. He was kicked out of the program in December after running afoul of the rules -- "in my placement, they wanted to treat me like an infant," he said -- and is now moving from friend to friend as he tries to find a job and a place of his own.

"A roof, a pillow, hot water," he said when asked what he wanted out of life. "I'll make everything else work."

Learning the challenges faced by children in foster care was the key to the day, said Jackie Cowan, the independent living coordinator for the Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Department of Social Services.

"We're hoping to get a better understanding of what youth see as housing problems so we can create and implement programs that better serve their needs," she said.

Nationwide, the most effective programs include intensive training and counseling in life skills and positive interaction with adults, said the program directors on the panel.

"We know our youth are not going to be able to move out without some assistance," said Bonita Campbell, director of independent living at Lighthouse Youth Services in Cincinnati. "We need to teach practical skills."

Sam Cobbs, executive director of First Place for Youth in Oakland, agreed.

"It's not like we're trying to fix our economy or reduce our dependence on foreign oil," he said. "It's a very simple thing we're trying to do."

Indeed it is, said Trevelle, who now lives in Richmond's Gilpin Court public-housing complex.

"I wanted to be heard," she said. "That's all I ever wanted."

Contact Zachary Reid at (804) 775-8179 or .