At some of the homes: 632 reports of missing children , 13 assault and battery incidents, one alleged rape and one fentanyl overdose.
A young boy is caught on Sunny Lo’s ring camera as he knocks on the door saying he has been kidnapped.
Santa Clara County’s unsanctioned solution to a crisis in caring for its most troubled children is failing to create a safe, stable environment, state Sen. Dave Cortese, a former county supervisor, told the Bay Area News Group. “Thankfully, children in our County have not needed to have similar experiences,” the Santa Clara County child welfare agency said in a statement.Santa Clara County has, in fact, rented hotel rooms for children and their caretakers, but a county spokesperson said Friday evening that hotels are used “only occasionally” and “generally for brief stays” when no other placement options are available.
At a county-run home in South San Jose, one teenage boy attempted suicide in July of 2021. Neighbors say teenagers often stash drugs in their bushes to retrieve later and park in front of their homes drinking and smoking through the night. When teens attempt to run away, neighbor Mario Contreras said, “the security guard comes chasing them down the street. There are problems with watching them all the time.
“Are we out of compliance right now with the state of California on the three homes?” veteran county Supervisor Cindy Chavez asked Damion Wright, director of the Department of Family and Children’s Services, during a May 7 board meeting. Members of the Juvenile Justice Commission, who visited two of the home sites last year, found that the county is keeping youth at some sites for months.
County welfare leaders explained the scattered sites concept to supervisors in 2020 as a short-term solution that could be licensed temporarily by the state. More than four years later, the scattered sites still have no licenses. And some of the sites meant to serve only one or two youths per house have become de facto group shelters.
Some foster families in Santa Clara County are trained to deal with higher-needs kids, but there are too few of them and many teens still end up in the scattered sites. Then, in 2019, Santa Clara County shut down the only county-run facility that was able to accept high-needs children — a county building known as the Receiving, Assessment and Intake Center or RAIC . The RAIC was designed to be a short-term housing option for those who just entered the child welfare system. But high-needs youths mixed with less troubled ones there, and the board became aware of “drug use, inappropriate sexual behavior, and worse,” according to Cortese, the state senator.
“We’re the purse strings — this is the board of supervisors,” Cortese said. “Tell us what you need to go create those placement options and build it out. That’s what I’m disappointed to hear — they obviously have not done that.”As the county and state continue to talk about what to do next, no clear solution has emerged for how to legally house and provide needed services for Santa Clara County’s troubled youths going forward.
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