LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Last month the state auditor’s office announced an investigation into the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. It’s because of numerous complaints that hundreds of foster children have been sleeping in office buildings across the state. Now, Cabinet Secretary Eric Friedlander is providing more details about the situation.
“In any given day, it can be one, two, I think last night, we had maybe three in our offices, and that’s across the state,” Friedlander stated was the typical number of foster children who are sleeping in one of their offices on any night.
It’s an issue he says has gotten worse over the last few years.
“We need to really identify these kids much earlier and get them much better support,” Friedlander said.
A spokesperson for the auditor’s office told Spectrum News in October they believe this has been going on for at least two years and affected at least 300 children over that time period.
Friedlander says that number would reflect the total amount of kids who’ve spent one or a handful of nights in a cabinet office, adding there has never been a night where hundreds of children were sleeping in offices at one time.
The cabinet director explained there are two reasons a child is in one of these situations. The first group is waiting to be transferred from one housing situation to another.
“Another group of kids that have really usually pretty significant behavioral health issues can be a wide range of things where no Kentucky provider will accept that child into their care,” he said.
Friedlander says this is an issue being seen nationwide, and here in Kentucky; it’s not just a Louisville issue.
The cabinet provided Spectrum News with video from inside the old L&N Building in downtown Louisville. It shows bedrooms and common areas that children staying there are being housed in.
“We are trying to take care of kids as best we can in what are absolutely trying circumstances,” Friedlander said.
As for how to solve this issue, he points to both short and long-term goals.
“We’ve tried emergency shelter and we have emergency shelter, more emergency shelter beds. We have higher acuity beds where kids are able to go into placement. We probably need more of that,” he said.
Friedlander adds he hopes to see the cabinet and general assembly work together on creating more facilities for foster children in the future.
Spectrum News submitted an open records request to the auditor’s office to see the complaints made against the cabinet. While our request was denied, it noted that, “Most of the constituent complaints you reference have been shared verbally, as there is a real issue with complainants believing that they will be retaliated against by the cabinet for health and family services and others if anything is put in writing.”