State Orders Changes At Sacramento County Child Welfare Site
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — She went from a homeless teen to a statistic in the state's foster care system.
But "Tessa"—we're not using her last name or showing her face to protect her identity—says she was worse off when she moved into the lobby of a centralized placement support unit.
The gated intake center which leases space on the campus of the Children's Receiving Home of Sacramento, off busy Auburn Boulevard is supposed to hold kids for a few hours while social workers locate their next foster home. In Tessa's case, 24 hours turned into 365 days.
"It's a waiting room. Why would you have kids sleeping there and waiting for placement waiting there?" she said
She says she spent night after night sleeping on an air mattress, at times on the tile floor in that small lobby. Space and showers weren't guaranteed.
"The whole room would be filled up, any room on the floor filled up with kids and mattresses," she said
But the California Department of Social Services says it's forcing Sacramento County's Child Welfare agency to put an end to the illegal foster facility by the end of the summer.
About a year after citing the center for operating as an illegal residential facility for children it couldn't place in foster homes, state officials are ordering the county to move the kids to on-site cottages. The adjacent shelter is now a non-profit group home, which previously said it's maxed out.
"I'm not sure they'll have the ability to really satisfy the needs of all the young people...there may be 100 kids a month that show up to that place right now, said Brenda Dabney.
Brenda Dabney of the Children's Law Center represents foster kids in court, and she's still pushing officials for a long-term solution.
"Something akin to a home, not an office, not a group home environment, but an actual home where a child can be showered with love and attention," she said.
Editor's note: The video version of this article erroneously showed video images of the receiving home instead of the intake center. The video has since been deleted. Various changes have also been made to this article to clarify facts reported on 8/14/17.