NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — Each year, more than 850 young people age out of Tennessee’s foster care system many without stable housing, financial support or a family to turn to.
But one Murfreesboro man is proving it’s possible to beat the odds.
Jahlin Osborne spent most of his childhood moving in and out of foster care, living with the uncertainty of where he would sleep or eat next.
“Me and my siblings, we came to foster care,” Osborne recalls. “Our mom had a very bad drug addiction. We moved around place to place.”
His life began to change in high school when he was placed with a stable family during his sophomore year.
“That’s my first time ever completing a full year in one school since I was eight,” he said.
Now, in college and living in his first apartment in Murfreesboro, Osborne credits programs from the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (DCS) with helping him find stability.
“Growing up, I didn’t even know when I was going to eat or where I was going to sleep that night,” Osborne said. “Every second I walk through my door with my own keys in hand, I feel blessed. I feel like I made it.”
Osborne’s story is what state leaders hope to replicate through a new $1.5 million housing initiative called “Reconstruct Challenge: Thriving Youth.”
This pilot program is a partnership between Belmont University’s Innovation Labs, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s faith-based and community initiative, and DCS. The goal is to help former foster youth successfully transition into adulthood with support, mentorship and most importantly safe, affordable housing.
“These young adults aging out of foster care have support systems like LifeSet and the Extension of Foster Care that provide resources and connect them with community organizations,” said Brenna Steward-Fashon, a LifeSet specialist involved in the program.
The first housing complex under the program, Lumen Flats, is currently under construction in Knoxville. It will be the first of eight to 10 privately funded affordable housing facilities planned across the state.
The initiative is still in its early stages, but Osborne says it’s a good first step. He’s hopeful it will offer young people something he didn’t always have a stable place to call home.
Jahlin says there needs to be more housing options he says people he grew up with are still yearning for a stable place after aging out of foster care.
Osborne says he would sign up for the program if he needed it, and one day, he hopes to give back by becoming a foster parent himself.
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