UCLA

Secure housing contributes to individual and family well-being and full participation in life (Bratt, 2002). Securing housing in early adulthood can be difficult for young people earning low incomes and with little or no family support, including youth exiting foster care to adulthood (Dworsky et al., 2012). The life course perspective suggests that perceived relationship quality with birth parents, economic social role transitions, and social stratification based on race are key factors in housing security during the transition to adulthood (Britton, 2013; Gillespie, 2020; Lei & South, 2016). However, these factors have not been studied among young adults aging out of foster care. Additionally, literature gaps on young adults’ housing outcomes after exiting care require a further inquiry into multidimensional housing trajectories and initiating investigation into eviction. This dissertation aimed to fill these gaps using Midwest Evaluation of Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth data. Analyzing longitudinal data collected between 2002 and 2011, during the Great Recession, this study identified young adult’s latent housing trajectories after foster care exit, established an eviction rate and count of repeated evictions, and examined the relationships between young adult’s perceived relationship quality with their birth mothers and fathers, time-varying economic measures, race and ethnicity, and housing trajectories and eviction. The multidimensional housing measure identified three housing trajectories: insecure, precarious, and secure. State of foster care residence, sex, education, children, housing subsidy, and income at wave 4 were associated with housing trajectories (i.e., secure versus precarious). Young adults’ eviction rate was 21%. Among the evicted group, 79% of young adults were evicted once and 21% experienced 2 to 4 evictions. The study demonstrated compelling evidence for relationships between economic hardship at ages 21, 23 or 24, and 26, and eviction. Homelessness, occupancy type at wave 3, and food insecurity at wave 4 were related to eviction also. Perceived quality of relationship with birth mothers and fathers and race and ethnicity were not associated with housing outcomes. Implications highlight the need to expand housing subsidies for youth transitioning from foster care to adulthood to mitigate precarious housing trajectories and universal guaranteed income to reduce economic hardship.