As a teenager in southeastern San Diego, Dulce Pelayo had a roof over her head. Then her mom died by suicide. Pelayo entered the foster care system and moved in with a relative. Yet that woman was eventually priced out of San Diego and returned to Mexico, which left Pelayo, who was 19 and a single mother, to sleep on friends’ couches. She and her infant son were homeless for months — until outside organizations offered to pay some of Pelayo’s rent and help her return to school. “For the first time, I felt safe and secure,” she said Thursday. Local leaders hope a new effort, called the Foster Futures Program, can similarly assist up to 50 people who recently left the foster care system. The nonprofit Promises2Kids will offer participants direct financial aid for everything from apartment deposits to car repairs, and proponents believe covering those one-off expenses, combined with support services like therapy, can reduce the staggering number of residents who become homeless every month in the county. “If we can keep somebody from falling onto the streets in the first place, it saves unspeakable perils and traumas,” Drew Moser, executive director of the Lucky Duck Foundation, said at a news conference in Kearny Mesa. “It’s also meaningfully more cost-effective.” A top complaint among people living outside is that help sometimes only comes after they’ve been evicted or seen their car towed or lost custody of their kids. Local officials are increasingly weighing investments in services that arrive before a catastrophe, such as ongoing rental assistance or diversion funding like Foster Futures. The program launches Nov. 4. Officials think $1 million is enough to cover two years worth of support. “These young adults are just one unexpected expense away from homelessness,” said Tonya Torosian, CEO of Promises2Kids. The nonprofit chipped in $400,000, while The Lucky Duck Foundation and the Regional Task Force on Homelessness each contributed $200,000. The city of San Diego gave $27,500 in grants through Councilmembers Sean Elo-Rivera, Stephen Whitburn and Raul Campillo. That leaves more than $172,000 still to raise. Leaders this week asked residents for donations or to volunteer as mentors. Most of the program’s budget will go directly to participants, officials said. The remaining $400,000 will pay for case managers, therapists and staffers who can help onetime foster kids navigate the housing system, among other assistance. Pelayo, who is now 29, recently completed a bachelor’s degree at National University and is about to start a social services job with the county. She lives in El Cajon with two siblings and her 9-year-old son. “For Christmas he got one of those inflatable dinosaur costumes,” she said. “He’s wearing it today.” Homelessness countywide has grown every month for two-and-a-half years. More than 1,300 people lost a place to stay for the first time just last month, according to the task force. Fewer than 1,100 homeless people were housed during the same period. “We need to reverse that trend, and we can only do that by leaning in 100 percent into prevention,” said Tamera Kohler, the task force’s CEO. A separate diversion fund has helped keep more than 240 adults housed since the start of the year.