Youngsters aging out of foster care get transportation funds
Program dubbed ‘Youth on the Move’
Young adults who gain legal independence from the foster care system in Los Angeles County will be offered free public transportation under a new program that started Monday, June 2.
The pilot program, dubbed “Youth on the Move,” is the first of its kind in the nation, according to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Young adults ages 18-21 who are no longer living with a foster family or who transitioned out of a group home and are employed, looking for work or going to school are eligible for the special Metro passes.
Metro will provide participants with a Transit Access Pass worth about $75 per month and good on all Metro buses and rail lines. Riders who need to use Metro and transit from other agencies in the county can get an EZ pass, worth $84 per month. The agency may offer the pass to riders between 22 and 24 years old in special cases.
Metro expects as many as 2,000 young people could receive a pass by the end of the first year.
“County government must work effectively and efficiently to prepare foster and probation youth for a successful transition to productive adulthood,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor and Metro board chair Mike Antonovich, who introduced the idea.
“This new countywide transit pass program, aimed specifically at foster youths transitioning to adulthood, is designed to be a tool to help them continue their education, search for work and be able to accept work in any part of our county,” he said.
Young adults who gain legal independence from the foster care system in Los Angeles County will be offered free public transportation under a new program that started June 2.
The pilot program, dubbed “Youth on the Move,” is the first of its kind in the nation, according to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Young adults ages 18-21 who are no longer living with a foster family or who transitioned out of a group home and are employed, looking for work or going to school are eligible for the special Metro passes.
Despite the fact that a record 1.13 million individuals in Los Angeles County received CalFresh benefits in January 2013, there are still many residents in immediate need of assistance who are unaware that they may be eligible for the benefit.
Consequently, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has voted to launch another campaign reminding people that May is CalFresh Awareness Month and that the help is available.
Additionally, the compaign is designed to promote healthier food choices in the nation’s largest and most diverse county.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Standard home sales — the kind involving non-distressed properties — rose to a 5-year high last month, and pending home sales climbed nearly 15 percent above the previous month, the California Association of Realtors reported today.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County dropped to its lowest amount since Feb. 1 today, decreasing four-tenths of a cent to $3.954.
The average price has dropped 47 times in 48 days, falling 34.6 cents over that span, including seven-tenths of a cent on Sunday, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service.
As the nation slowly emerges from the Great Recession, the economic numbers for the Antelope Valley show a much higher rate of sustained unemployment and devalued housing prices in both Lancaster and Palmdale.
The five-year economic downturn saw much of the area’s the job losses come from the construction industry and retail sales. At the beginning of the year, Lancaster had an unemployment rate of 14.4 percent while Palmdale fared better at 11.1 percent. In 2008 the two cities lost a little fewer than 1,000 jobs combined, according to a 2009 report.
