BY Claudia Boyd-Barrett
At the beginning of March, Monse Gonzalez had her entire year planned. She would graduate from community college, save part of her paychecks as a childcare worker, and start school at UC Santa Barbara.
Then came the pandemic.
Suddenly, everything Gonzalez, 18, had worked for was in jeopardy: her job, her housing, her associate’s degree. While many young adults have families to lean on during these uncertain times, as a young adult in California’s foster care system, Gonzalez’s main support is herself.
“I want to make sure that I’ll be able to have a roof over my head,” said Gonzalez, who has bounced between multiple foster families and housing arrangements since age 15 when her mother died. “I want to know what’s going to happen in the next year.”