Help for Students without Families
By Spencer Frye
When foster care kids “age out” of the system at age 18, they face an uncertain, and sometimes dangerous future. With no family to support them and no home to go to, they find themselves suddenly on their own.
One in five will become instantly homeless. One in four will be unable to graduate high school. Only half will have steady employment by age 24. Fewer than 4% will ever earn a college degree.
For those who do manage to enroll in college, the odds are steep, with no one there to help them find their way or show them the ropes with no support to fall back on. Some have to choose between buying books or being on a meal plan. During holidays, many have no place to go. And a simple parking ticket or infirmary bill, if unpaid, can get them locked out of dorms and class registration, putting them back on the street through no fault of their own.
Like most who grew up with family, I was oblivious to the pitfalls faced by former foster kids, until I met April Farlow, founder of Lydia’s Place, named after her great grandmother Lydia Hight. Born in 1891, Ms. Hight said of the Great Depression that she “never knew when it came and never knew when it went.” For years, she walked more than two miles each way to a factory job, then worked her own garden. With her meager savings, she built three small homes on her land and housed people who needed help getting back on their feet.
Athens Habitat’s ReNew Athens program purchases and refurbishes abandoned multi-family dwellings and repurposes them as affordable rentals for low-income residents in Athens.
Lydia’s Place carries on that spirit of helping others by providing assistance to young adults at risk of homelessness in the Athens area. Across the state, some 300-400 foster kids age out of the system each year, and about 1,600 homeless students graduate high school. Earning a college diploma could well mean the difference between a successful life for these youths or a life spent on the streets, in prison, or struggling to live off of minimum wage salaries.
For a time, Lydia’s Place had a sponsored dorm room at UGA, but when the sponsorship lapsed they needed a new solution. As executive director of Athens Area Habitat for Humanity, I knew we could do more for these aspiring youths. So we created a partnership, called Lydia’s Homeplace, that will provide pre-paid housing for eight at-risk students for half of the cost of a single room in the dorms.
Athens Habitat’s ReNew Athens program purchases and refurbishes abandoned multi-family dwellings and repurposes them as affordable rentals for low-income residents in Athens. We had acquired a quadruplex with easy access to public transportation which, if renovated, could serve as a home base for students who otherwise would have no place to live.
Projects like these are dear to my heart. While the core of Habitat’s mission is to help families afford homes of their own, that program alone cannot solve the wide range of housing problems confronting different groups of people who are trying to improve their lives and need the stability that a safe and secure home ensures in order to succeed. We also provide low-cost rental units through ReNew Athens, offer no-cost home repairs to low-income residents through the Brush With Kindness program, and provide handicap ramps to disabled residents through our EHARP program so they are not faced with the choice of moving out of their homes or becoming shut-ins. Then there are other situations that require novel solutions.
The wonderful thing about the Lydia’s Homeplace project is that it will serve as a resource for so many years to come, helping not just one student, not just eight students, but scores of future students over the years. And because it’s off-campus housing, it can serve not only UGA students, but those attending Athens Tech, Piedmont College, and the University of North Georgia as well.
With so much need in our community, it can be easy to get discouraged. Sometimes we all wonder, “Do I really make a difference?” But the youth from Lydia’s Place are inspirational, and not just because I can see what a difference a simple place to stay can make in a person’s life. It’s also because they have such great spirits and true determination. They haven’t had the benefit of a supportive family, and while still in their teens they’ve been cut loose to fend for themselves. But they are among the most resilient, resourceful, optimistic, and hardworking people you’ll ever meet. Perhaps because they have to be.
And while it may seem paradoxical, it actually takes courage to step up and say they need some help when it’s offered. There’s a stigma in America to having no home, no family. And it can be embarrassing to be “getting help” when everyone else seems to be making it on their own. But if we can lend a hand by providing these students with secure housing, we can free them up to focus on their work and getting their degrees.
Our partnership has already received a $25,000 grant toward Lydia’s Homeplace from the Irving Foundation, and an equal amount from individual donors to Lydia’s Place and Athens Area Habitat. But there’s more to be done. We hope to keep rents paid two years in advance, and to renovate more units if possible when these are complete. So, there’s an ongoing need.
If you’d like to help these young people achieve their dreams of success and to reward their hard work and determination, you can learn more or become a supporter at Lydias-Place.com/lydias-homeplace. Every little bit helps, and everyone can make a difference.
