Rotary Club Hears About Housing for Those Who Age Out of Foster Care

The Westfield Rotary Club played host to Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale of the Reformed Church of Highland Park. Kaper-Dale spoke to the club about the Affordable Housing Corporation (RCHP-AHC) he started.

Since 2006, Kaper-Dale and his wife, have advocated for youth recently aged out of the foster care system. Some children can be bounced between a dozen different foster homes in their lives, and at age 18 they must fend for themselves. A high percentage of those young people cycle back through the system, be it through incarceration, welfare, women's shelters or a number of other reasons. Each person that does return to the system costs taxpayers about $40,000 a year. The Kaper-Dales found that the common denominator to many of the kids' troubles was inadequate housing.

"If you don't have a stable place to put your head at night, it's hard to get your other problems under control," said Kaper-Dale.

About 1,000 teens in New Jersey and 20,000 nationwide need help finding housing because they've aged out of the foster care system, and the Kaper-Dales decided to help. In partnership with the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, and wholly paid for by state and county funds including from the Special Needs Trust Fund, Kaper-Dale built six apartments on the church roof. The apartments, now called Irayna Court, house former foster children aged 18-21. The Kaper-Dales' organization also purchased the home next to the church, where a formerly homeless single mother and her three children now live. Later in 2010, RCHP-AHC will open 11 apartments in Newark for former foster children, now veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Peggy Rothbaum, a writer and psychologist who is a Rotary member, invited Kapre-Dale to speak because of her desire to do something similar. Rothbaum feels that the Rotary Club may be able to do something similar, if not necessarily in Westfield, somewhere in Union County and with the help of other Westfield-based groups like the Westfield United Fund. She likened Kaper-Dale's presentation to a musicians' listening party.

"It was just a way to get together with people listening, talking, seeing what they have in common," she said.

Homeless advocacy is a cause that the Rotary Club has supported in the past, especially through a partnership with the Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless, a fact brought up after the Reverend's presentation that Kaper-Dale called "fantastic." Another club member was quick to approach Kaper-Dale after the speech, saying that he was a veteran and to contact him if he can help with the Reverend's veteran housing in Newark.

"Westfield is a place that people want to be," said Kaper-Dale to the Rotary Club. "People without many advantages would benefit from your love."