By: David He
Due to a shortage of foster homes in Los Angeles County, county supervisors and other child welfare programs are forced to house foster youth in hotels.
When Former Governor Jerry Brown signed a law in 2015 that would require moving children to homes with relatives or foster families, many foster homes closed because of the lack of foster kids.
However, the few youths with very severe behavior problems that no foster family would take were left without many good foster homes.
However, the few remaining youth facilities are allowed to reject young people they deem to need more intensive and better care than they can provide, like children with severe trauma or serious mental illnesses.
Many people, such as Scott Murray, a spokesperson for the California Department of Social Services, believe that foster youth who need psychiatric treatment need a non-restrictive environment.
“We know that youth who live apart from their biological parents do best when they are cared for in committed, nurturing family homes,” Murray said. “It’s critical for youth to remain in the least restrictive, most family-like settings possible, supported by a robust continuum of services to address individual needs.”
In fact, some youth in the hotel foster homes have even attacked social workers due to the bad feeling of being in a restricted and lonely hotel room.
After two social workers who were working at the hotel foster facility were attacked by some of the children earlier in the year 2023, David Green, a social worker who leads SEIU Local 721, a public service worker union, held a meeting with officials from the county’s departments that are involved with child welfare. When the meeting ended, they were all convinced that they must work with the state to make a foster facility that could not refuse youths.
“A lot of social workers, they can call 20 different foster families, and they’ll just say no,” Green said. “They’re just left without any other alternative. That’s not fair for the kids. It’s not fair for the social workers.”
Many foster youths in Los Angeles are forced to live in hotel rooms that are unsuitable for them, but officials are trying to build facilities that will be able to attend to the needs of these young people.
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