Excerpt featuring CCF Co-Chair & former Rep. Ruth Kagi from “Homeless and in Foster Care: Hundreds of Washington Youth Sleeping in Offices, Hotel Rooms and Even Cars” by Elizabeth Anon (published Oct. 1)
…In the meantime, those connected to the child welfare system agree that for a state agency that has removed children from their homes due to safety concerns and taken over custody rights, it is indefensible to then treat them as if they were homeless. Under federal definitions outlined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, people sleeping in cars are to be considered homeless because cars are “not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation.”
“The damage that youth are experiencing with these multiple stays and without a stable, consistent support system is just devastating,” said Ruth Kagi, a former state legislator who serves as co-chair of an oversight board monitoring the child welfare agency. Kagi described such slapdash housing in hotels and offices as “increasing the traumatization and the instability in children’s lives.”