By Shirley Hawkins
Contributing Writer
LOS ANGELES — In a region that has the largest foster youth population in the country, there is a nonprofit organization that looks out for youth aging out of the foster care system, helping them find homes providing them with a safety net of services.
A Sense of Home was founded in 2015 by former Australian decorator Georgie Smith. She said she started the organization after seeing a post on social media from a young man who had just aged out of the foster care system and was seeking help.
Smith reached out to the young man by helping him find an apartment and that was the beginning of A Sense of Home. With the help of the foundation’s volunteers, the organization has created more than 1,000 homes for more than 2,700 former foster youth over the past nine years.
Statistics indicate that most homeless youth are between 18 and 24 years old (41% are working, 24% are in school, 17% are working and in school, 13% are the primary caregiver). Ninety seven percent are people of color (31% are Latino, 54% are Black, 4% are Asian, and 3% are Native American/Alaskan native). Eighty seven percent are young women. Fifty-four percent have children or are the guardians of their younger siblings and more than 90% of those who have children are single mothers. Many are from Central and South L.A.
As the youth age out of the foster care system, many are left homeless with no permanent place to go.
“On day one that they age out, around 20% will become homeless,” Smith said. “Within 18 months, 50% will be homeless.”
A Sense of Home provides more than a roof over the heads of the young people it helps. They are also supplied with home goods that include couches, chairs, beds, kitchenware and even pictures to hang on the wall.
Many of the youth helped by the program pay it forward by pitching in to decorate the apartments each week.
On Oct. 25, A Sense of Home held its fourth annual gala, a fundraiser at the home of
In an effort to bring more attention to foster youth, the organization hosted their fourth-annual A Sense of Home Gala on October 25, 2024 that occurred at the home of former Ambassador Nicole Avant and her husband Ted Sarandos.
Attending this year’s gala were Jason Bateman, Tobey Maguire, Michelle Rodriguez, Nate Berkus, Molly Sims, Terry Crews, Baron Davis, Sara Gilbert, Soleil Moon Frye, Jeremiah Brent, Edward Norton, Emile Hirsch, Mayor Karen Bass and more.
Smith thanked guests and donors, noting “A Sense of Home was created to make a place your home. Now here we are nine years later and we’ve created 1,000 homes for vulnerable and in need foster youth who have aged out of the foster care system.
“Thank you to everyone who is here tonight for supporting us — especially Ted and Nicole for not only opening their home to us tonight but also being our first ever donors over nine years ago. We will be expanding our work on the East Coast.”
Following remarks by Smith, Bass shared her lifelong commitment to advocating for foster youth, and spoke further about the work and impact that the A Sense of Home team has achieved.
“I am honored to be here tonight with A Sense of Home, an incredible organization that is doing the critical work to make sure that every child that ages out of foster care has somewhere to go,” Bass said. “It is a fundamental duty of society to take care of its children and we know that this is a system that can be transformed. No young adult should be unhoused and we must continue to support this critical work.”
Also attending the gala was county Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who gave an impassioned speech on how the city of Los Angeles has made strides to implement programs to aid low income and former foster youth families.
“How critical A Sense of Home is in supplementing this work in order to provide these families with the foundational building blocks to be able to create a home of their own,” Mirchell said.
The gala raised $1.5 million that will be directed towards the organization’s efforts to continue serving former foster youth in Los Angeles and expand to additional cities across the country.
The funds also will be allocated to A Sense of Home’s supportive services in employment, education and new partnerships with policy makers and the public sector to ensure that every youth aging out of the system is connected.
Shirley Hawkins is a freelance reporter for Wave Newspapers. She can be reached at metropressnews@gmail.com.
