Since 2022, children have been placed in foster care in Georgia more than 1,800 times at least in part because of homelessness, records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution show.
While homelessness isn’t one of the top reasons why children are removed from their parents — the most cited causes are neglect and being in a household where there’s drug abuse — the numbers help illuminate how homelessness is impacting families here.
Often, several factors lead to homelessness, though advocates chiefly blame poverty-level wages and a dearth of affordable housing. Across Georgia, there is an estimated shortage of 214,962 affordable rental homes for extremely low-income renters, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Encouraged by advocates, the federal government began requiring states to report data about homeless children being moved into foster care as part of a rule change that took effect two years ago. The change is aimed at helping agencies identify services for families, according to the Federal Register, which defines homelessness as having “no regular or adequate place to live. This includes living in a car, or on the street or staying in a homeless or other temporary shelter.”
Melissa Fountain’s story exemplifies the challenges homeless families face and the fear that can keep them from seeking help. For nine years, the Villa Rica mother and her young son stayed on friends’ couches, in homeless shelters and in her car. Meanwhile, she battled a drug addiction.
Fountain worried state authorities would put her son in foster care if they found out she was homeless, so she avoided seeking government assistance. When she had to take her son to the emergency room, she concealed that they were homeless. Whenever they went shopping, she became hyperaware of anyone who seemed to notice them.
In 2020, when she was about to give birth to her daughter, she felt overwhelmed enough to seek help. Inspired by her faith in God, she said, she told hospital staff she was homeless. State authorities stepped in and put her children in the care of her sister. They also helped Fountain get into an addiction recovery program and find transitional housing through Mary Hall Freedom Village, a nonprofit based in Sandy Springs.
After eight months, Fountain said, she got her kids back. Now in a 12-step recovery program, she said she hasn’t used drugs in 3½ years. She added she has a job in the health care industry and was recently promoted. Fountain is also participating in a family therapy program and receiving financial planning help at Wellroot Family Services, a nonprofit that offers short-term foster care and housing.
“I was willing to go that low,” she said of disclosing her homelessness, “and let them take my children because I couldn’t do it for myself anymore.”
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
The AJC obtained the records about homeless children from Georgia’s Human Services Department, which includes the Division of Family and Children Services. That agency is required to report this “out-of-home care” information semiannually to the federal government, which uses it for budgeting and policymaking.
State authorities can remove children from their parents and place them in the care of relatives, people close to their families, foster parents or group homes for a combination of reasons, including homelessness. Among the other reasons: if they are abandoned or abused; run away; or have inadequate access to mental health care.
The 2022 federal rule change also includes another new reporting category: States now must keep track of how many children are placed in foster care because their parents were detained or deported by immigration officials. Georgia cited this reason 67 times for foster care decisions between November 2022 and June 6 of this year, the records show. Children have been moved into foster care in Georgia for this reason alone 14 times this year, up from nine last year.
In all, Georgia cited homelessness 1,824 times for foster care decisions between September 2022 and June 6 of this year. The same children could be reflected more than once, as some are repeatedly moved in and out of foster care. Children have been placed in foster care in Georgia 68 times this year solely because of homelessness. Last year’s total was 78.
State officials said they consider a variety of factors before requesting that homeless children be separated from their parents, including whether their safety is at serious risk. Juvenile court judges make final determinations.
Officials at Georgia’s Human Services Department declined to be interviewed for this article. But they responded to questions in writing, saying their agency “partners with biological parents to address the issues that led to the child’s safety being at risk and sets goals with them to hopefully have a successful reunification.”
Aiming to prevent more children from becoming homeless and being removed from their families, the same agency approved a contract last year, awarding $1.1 million in federal funds to Project Community Connections. The Atlanta nonprofit is using the money for “rapid rehousing” services in Fulton County. Some of the money helps cover rent and utilities in the short term.
The nonprofit’s leaders said they were preparing to renew that contract this month and extend their reach into DeKalb County. They hope to eventually expand what they are doing statewide.
So far, as part of their contract with the state, they have helped 43 families, nonprofit officials said. That total includes 118 children, some of whom were taken out of foster care and reunited with their parents.
Homes have been found for 27 of the families. Among them is Quintes Comage’s family. She was living with her 13-month-old grandson and teenage twin daughters in a hotel in Union City until April of this year, when the nonprofit helped them move into an apartment near Austell.
Before then, the single mother said, she fruitlessly sought affordable housing. She said she made too much money to qualify for low-income housing but didn’t make enough to afford a market-rate rental. A prior eviction and expensive rental application fees complicated her efforts.
“I cried a lot because I was trying to apply for all these apartments and I was getting turned down,” said Comage, who does accounting work and unloads trucks. “The rent is so expensive now.”
The nonprofit, Comage said, inspected her apartment, paid six months of her rent, gave her diapers for her grandson and covered her storage unit fees. Before moving into her apartment, she said, her family lived for months in a series of hotel rooms in Marietta and Union City.
“My mental health is 90% better,” she said of moving into her apartment with the nonprofit’s help.
Comage said state authorities moved her grandson into her care last year as her grown daughter experienced economic, addiction and mental health problems. Comage added that her daughter — who did not respond to requests for comment — eventually moved from a hotel into a tent. Comage hopes to eventually obtain permanent custody of her grandson.
“As long as he needs me,” Comage said of her grandson, “I’m here.”
Georgia should expand its use of federal aid, including the Family Unification Program, said state Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, a member of the state’s Behavioral Health Reform and Innovation Commission.
Only six of Georgia’s 21 public housing agencies that are eligible for that program’s housing vouchers have applied for them since Congress first funded the program in 1992, according to federal officials. Those six agencies have been awarded 530 vouchers, which help needy families find housing and assist young adults who have left foster care.
“It seems to me,” said Oliver, a Decatur Democrat, “that it is a no-brainer that we would use available money from the federal government to prevent unnecessary foster care placement of children by providing options for housing.”
AJC staff writer Lautaro Grinspan contributed to this report.
By the numbers
- As of March 31, there were 10,482 children in foster care in Georgia. Of those, 409 were in Cobb County; 593 in DeKalb; 392 in Fulton; and 350 in Gwinnett. Most foster children are reunited with their families. Some are adopted.
- As of January, there were 2,867 people experiencing homelessness in Atlanta. Of those, 216 were under 18.
- Nationwide last year, an estimated 111,620 people under 18 experienced homelessness.
Source: Georgia Human Services Department; the Partners for Home City of Atlanta 2024 Point-in-Time Count; and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2023 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress.
