Legislation that requires California’s public universities to give priority for on-campus housing to emancipated foster youths was signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

AB 1393, or Foster Youth Priority Housing in College, also requires California State University campuses to keep housing facilities open for foster youths during school breaks. The bill was authored by Assemblymember Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley.

“Some of foster youths don’t actually have a place to go,” said Chantel Johnson, legislative and policy coordinator for the California Youth Connection, an organization that sponsored the bill. “So the point of this bill is to keep them from being homeless and to ensure their stability while trying to complete their degree.”

Sacramento State’s Guardian Scholars program, which began in 2006, provides financial, emotional and academic assistance to emancipated foster youths, said Joy Salvetti, program director of Guardian Scholars.

Former foster youth and freshman kinesiology major Brittany Chamalbide is a recipient of the Breaking the Barriers Guardian Scholars Scholarship Fund provided by the Wells Fargo Foundation.

“They’re pretty much paying for everything,” Chamalbide said. “I never knew that there are people out there who care about me and would help me get through college.”

Chamalbide, who now lives at one of Sac State’s resident halls, was in foster care in Seattle, Wash., until she was 8 years old. She and her brother were then put under the guardianship of an aunt and uncle in Elk Grove.

The Guardian Scholars program works with Housing and Residential Life to provide on- and off-campus housing to former foster youths, Salvetti said.

“If we’re made aware that they’re part of the foster care program or have previously been, we definitely try to accommodate them to the best of our ability,” said Peggy Luers, coordinator for housing administration and off-campus housing services at Sac State’s Housing and Residential Life. “They don’t have other avenues as far as family support, and they don’t have a lot of options for housing, so we do what we can to accommodate them.”

The Guardian Scholars program has 44 full-time students. Salvetti said former foster youths who are not full-time students also receive support from the program.

“We try to build a support structure for them so that they only have to worry about academics,” Salvetti said.

Twelve other CSU campuses have similar programs.

Johnson said that although these are support programs for foster youths, not all of them provide funds for housing.

Salvetti said the program helps former foster youths create their identities in college.

“For foster youths, the fact that they’re emancipated at 18 and basically told to go on their own, you realize just how remarkably daunting that is,” Salvetti said. “Many times, they are very isolated. They just have no one.”

Kristine Guerra can be reached at [email protected].