| Statement of Tyler Bacon, Florida Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support
of the House Committee on Ways and Means July 12, 2007
Chairman
McDermott, Ranking Member Weller, and members of this Subcommittee, thank you
for allowing me to appear before you today on behalf of the thousands of
children and youth in foster care who can not be here in Washington to share
their stories and to ask you to take action to help them.
My name is Tyler
Bacon and I am 22 years old. I entered Florida’s foster care system at the age
of 13. I was placed in care after my mother told a judge I was not her child
and she wanted nothing to do with me. Abandoned to the foster care system, I
grew up in group homes with between 20 and 60 young men. I was never given the
opportunity to enter a Foster Home or build a relationship with a mom or dad. I
never had anyone to talk to or go to for my problems, no one who cared when I
had an issue.
At the age of eighteen
I was told I was an adult and I aged out of the system. I ended up homeless on
my 18th birthday. I had a bigger plan for myself, however, and
I was finally able to get on my feet and get my own place.
With no other
people to call family, at age twenty one I tried to reconnect with my bio
family, but nothing had changed. They still did not want me in their lives. The
strain of the relationship led to an argument with a family member in which I
was stabbed. I ended up in the hospital with no health insurance, adding to my
financial strain. After being hospitalized I was unable to return to my
warehouse job as I could not do the heavy lifting required by the position.
Because I could not work and had no family support, I found myself evicted and
I ended up homeless once again. I stayed with friends as long as possible
because trying to get my own apartment proved too difficult. Even though
I had access to housing funds from the state to help pay for an apartment,
landlords didn’t want to rent to a young adult with an eviction on his record
and I could find no one to co-sign or help with the application process.
Because I had
nowhere else to stay, I ended up in a hotel for four months. While this arrangement
kept me from staying on the street, it was impossible to save money due to the
expensive rate of $1,200 a month, and an impossible arrangement to maintain
with my minimum wage job.
The good news is
that after a year of homelessness, I was finally able to save enough money to
rent my own 1 bedroom apartment. I moved in last month. I am now employed
full-time as a manager with Blockbuster Video and am excited that I once again
am able to spend some of my time advocating for improvements of the foster care
system.
I take this
opportunity to ask you to consider these goals for the foster care system to
improve the odds for the thousands of young people who will celebrate, or fear,
their 18th birthday this year:
1. Extend foster
care until age 21
Foster youth
deserve the same resources, tools and support that parents provide for their
own child. The state serves as our parents. We are looking to policy makers to
provide the safety net a family provides. By terminating assistance at age 18, the
state abandons youth at a time when they are still in great need of supervision
and support. My story is a single story which approximates the struggle facing
over 20,000 of my peers this year alone.
2. Provide
health coverage until age 21
I urge Congress
to extend health insurance to all youth from foster care to age 21. Medical
expenses to young person struggling to establish independence can be crushing.
In my case, medical bills have proven to be a grave obstacle to establishing
myself.
3. Make permanency
a priority for all youth
Most
importantly, I urge Congress to provide states with the incentives and
flexibility in financing to assure that everything is done to provide
permanence for young people before they leave foster care. We need more
funding to help former youth get into a family setting. We must provide older
youth with the lifelong support a family grants their own child. Foster youth
are place in the system for their best interest. How is their best interest
looked after if we are sending them unprepared into the world , vulnerable, and
with no safety net?
I believe the
hardships I faced through my emancipation from foster care were avoidable. If
I had experienced some form of permanency in my life before I left care, I know
my transition would have been easier. Permanency is having someone there to help
you when you need it, someone you don’t need an appointment to talk to.
Permanency is having someone to lean on for support when obstacles come your
way. Without some permanency, many foster youth face desperate options like
homelessness, shelters, jail, or if they are fortunate to be employed like me,
temporary and unstable refuge in hotels.
I am determined
to succeed despite the obstacles that have been placed in my path. But I
implore members of Congress to act now, to make changes to improve the odds for
my 513,000 younger brothers and sisters coming up through the system.
Thank you for
the opportunity to share my story and thoughts with you.
Respectfully,
Tyler Bacon
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