Janell Braxton spent much of the early 2000s in foster care. She moved between more than eight homes before the age of 21. After she exited foster care, Janell felt she wasn’t set up to take care of herself – she wasn’t taught to build a budget, pay her rent or apply for an apartment – and after a particularly traumatic experience she found herself staying on couches with friends and family.

In the third of a three-part series on how public funds are being used to address youth homelessness in Washington state, Janell and her mother Debra tell their stories.

Janell told journalists Sam Leeds and Elizabeth Whitman, “If my story can help anyone, just even one person, then that’s all that matters to me.”

Learn more: ‘Home was never a place’: One woman’s life in WA foster care

This episode was created by Youth Today and Crosscut. The story editor was Jacob Jones.

By 17, Pip was cycling in and out of Kitsap County’s juvenile court. He avoided going home to a “volatile” living situation. He struggled at work.

Then a court-appointed therapist referred him to a program called H-SYNC, Housing Stability for Youth in Courts. H-SYNC has been life-changing, Pip said.

Nearly a quarter of young people who exit the Washington state justice system are homeless a year later. Young people leaving foster care or inpatient behavioral health become homeless at high rates as well. Five years ago, Washington enacted a law aimed at preventing this phenomenon.

In the second of a three-part series, journalists Sam Leeds and Elizabeth Whitman explain how H-SYNC was designed to identify and help youth at risk of homelessness — and how it could serve as a model for other states.

Learn more: Researchers team up with court staff to help Washington homeless youth

This episode was created by Youth Today and Crosscut. The story editor was Jacob Jones.

When Daniel Lugo was preparing to transition out of foster care around his 21st birthday, he looked for help figuring out how to cover his rent and other expenses once state payments stopped. Eventually, he reached a dead end.

Later, as a legislative aide in Washington's House of Representatives, that experience inspired him to propose a "no-wrong-door access point" for young people in similar situations, like exiting foster care, the juvenile justice system, or in-patient behavior health treatment.

In the first of a three-part series, journalists Sam Leeds and Elizabeth Whitman trace Lugo's idea through the legislative process and into reality.

Learn more: Washington’s new youth homelessness ‘Lifeline’ service lags

This episode was created by Youth Today and Crosscut. The story editor was Jacob Jones.