Former foster youth and advocates urge Michigan panel to expand mental health, housing, scholarship and food supports

Lashawn D. Davis, a former foster child, author and volunteer member of Michigan’s foster care review board, told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Human Services that many young people leave foster care without trauma assessments, exit plans or stable housing and urged lawmakers to invest in prevention-oriented services.

“Today I'm asking you to invest in young people who have already overcome extraordinary adversity and who simply need the tools and support necessary to become productive self-sufficient Michigan citizens,” Davis said, describing 10 years in the system and urging more funding for trauma assessments and mental-health care rather than defaulting to psychotropic medications.

Davis asked the panel to protect and expand youth-in-transition funding, prioritize housing stability, increase educational supports and scholarship opportunities, strengthen financial-literacy programming and expand behavioral-health services for transitioning youth. She suggested boosting the Fostering Futures Scholarship awards — offering examples of raising awards instead of leaving exact current statute language unspecified — and called for routine exit planning so youth do not leave care without a transition plan.

Representative Longjohn amplified the “pay now or pay later” argument, telling members that studies of trauma-exposed children show higher lifetime health costs and urging preventive spending now to reduce later emergency and social costs.

Several other witnesses who aged out of care described overlapping practical gaps. Jerome Stevenson, a college student and former foster youth, said removal of on-campus meal plans and unreliable local transportation had created food and access barriers that complicated his education. “I was doing good. I registered myself with the EBT program,” he said, noting that college meal plans were assumed to be affordable and were removed.

Ta'via Bentley, a former foster youth and data scientist with the Park West Foundation, urged the subcommittee to mark $2 million from a one-time $3 million general fund appropriation for Food Assistance Program (FAP/SNAP) modernization to enable data sharing between foster care systems and SNAP. Bentley said 75% federal reimbursement for such one-time IT investments is commonly available and that improved interfaces would reduce manual eligibility delays that can leave youth without benefits for months. She cited Park West Foundation and other youth advocate surveys to describe food-insecurity rates among foster youth and attrition in benefits during placement changes, attributing the figures to those surveys.

Dylan White of Fostering Futures described long delays in caseworker contact, food insecurity and the difficulty of reentering the workforce after extended placements, urging reforms to improve continuity of care and supports at release.

No formal votes were taken during the hearing; lawmakers told witnesses they would continue conversations and consider how to incorporate the requests into budget proposals and legislative drafts. The subcommittee did not adopt specific dollar amounts or statutory language during the session.