It had been over a year since Michaela Sullins aged out of the Texas foster care system—a system she had known since she was left in a dumpster at age 3—and her struggle to find stability continued. She was 19, pregnant and alone in the midst of her second and most prolonged bout of homelessness, and she returned to Central Texas hoping to reach members of her biological family.
But in the house where her sister lived, Michaela said secondhand methamphetamine smoke regularly filled the air. Almost as quickly as she arrived Michaela fled to a friend’s place in Austin and, like many homeless young adults, couch surfed while trying to find stability for her and her unborn daughter.