This story was produced by Street Sense Media and The DC Line. Story originally posted by Annemarie Cuccia of dcist.com.
When Ronnie Harris first entered foster care at 12 years old, she was certain she would be adopted. But, in what felt like no time at all, foster care swallowed her teenage years. The system jerked Harris across the city. Each time she moved, she hoped the next house would hold adoptive parents and her own room. But it never did.
After leaving a particularly neglectful placement, Harris became homeless at 20. She was still experiencing homelessness when she turned 21, the milestone that marks the date young people age out of the foster care system in D.C. At the time, the District had dozens of housing vouchers available for young people in foster care who turn 21 without the resources to rent their own apartment. Yet, in the nine years she had spent in care, agency staff never told Harris, now 22, that such vouchers existed.
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