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L.A. County fails to place older foster kids, leaving them homeless, lawsuit alleges

Homepage News

Rebecca Ellis

Aug. 23, 2023

Los Angeles County is condemning older foster

to long, destabilizing stints of homelessness and couch-surfing by failing to provide them with appropriate homes, a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges.

In a 108-page complaint, attorneys with four law firms argue that L.A. County, responsible for the local foster care system, and the state of California, which

that system, are shirking their legal responsibility to ensure foster youths between the ages of 16 and 21 have a safe and stable place to live. Instead, the filing alleges, local government has created a "foster care to homelessness pipeline."

In California, eligible youths can opt to remain in foster care until they turn 21. Last year, L.A. County was responsible for more than 4,200 youths between the ages of 16

21, according to the lawsuit.

One of the countys chief responsibilities: ensuring these youth have both stable housing and behavioral health services they will need to tackle long histories of trauma and abuse.

Leecia Welch, a deputy legal director at Children's Rights, a New York-based child advocacy organization, said the county has failed on both fronts.

When L.A. makes the decision to take responsibility for raising these young people, and step into the shoes of their parents, at the very least, it can't leave them homeless, said Welch, whose firm joined Public Counsel, Munger, Tolles & Olson, and Alliance for Childrens Rights in the lawsuit.

The four firms sued the countys Children and Family Services and Mental Health

which find placements for foster youths and provide them with behavioral health services and well as the states Health and Human Services Agency, Department of Health Care Services and Department of Social Services, all three of which play a role in overseeing and administering these services.

The suit argues both the county and state violated the constitutional rights of older foster youths by subjecting them to extreme housing instability and homelessness while they remain in foster care. The suit asks for a judge to require youth be provided with safe and stable placements at all times.

The county Department

of Child and Family Services and Mental Health said in a statement that

take the allegations "very seriously" and were aware young people exiting the child welfare

faced "significant stressors," including lack of housing.

"help transition-age youth navigate these and other challenges by providing assistance with education and housing plans, job preparedness, transportation and mental health services," the

said. "The county is committed to ensuring the mental well-being of young people as they enter adulthood and providing available services to assist with that transition."

The three state agencies declined to comment on the ongoing lawsuits.

The suit was filed as a class action on behalf of all county foster youth between the ages of 16 and 21. Six plaintiffs, all given pseudonyms in the filings, say their time in foster care as a teen or young adult has been punctuated with stints of homelessness, violence and instability.

Onyx G,

was placed in multiple residential facilities where she experienced harassment and an attempted sexual assault, according to the lawsuit. After being sexually assaulted by a roommate at a different residential program this May, she left the facility and was homeless for three months.

Erykah B., 19, was removed from a foster home marked by abuse at age 17 and was put in at least three new homes in one of which she also experienced an attempted sexual assault

, according to the lawsuit. After that, the 19-year-old was briefly homeless, sleeping outside for two weeks with her girlfriend.

Rosie S., 20, was offered only referrals to a homeless shelter by the county after a year of couch-surfing, according to the filing. The lawsuits said she is expecting a child, but was told by the county there were no available placements for young parents at the types of transitional housing she was hoping for.

The barriers to housing for foster youth with children of their own are particularly formidable. The filing alleges young mothers and fathers in foster care are regularly barred from

with their children or given access to programs with arbitrary rules on where children can be fed, forcing parents into inappropriate and unstable placements in order to live with their children.

There is clearly an insufficient number of placements, there's an insufficient array, and there are also policies and practices that result in instability because young people aren't getting the support they need, said Tara Ford, a senior attorney with Public Counsel.

older foster youths

The Times reported

drector of local advocacy at the Alliance for Children's Rights,