Columbia, SC (WLTX) After News 19 broke the story of Richland County Department of Social Services housing kids in hotels, they changed their policy. Now we've learned that children are sleeping in the county office.
In a video obtained by News 19 you can hear a DSS Worker saying, "I'm showing her where they sleep." In that video a DSS worker shows a former foster child who is in the independent living program, Angelica Eastman, where children sleep when they sleep in the office. She says case workers have told her numerous times, if they cannot find placement for her, she will sleep in the office, but she has refused. The now 20 year old was in foster care for 16 and a half years. She is now in the AFter Care or Independent Living program that is supposed to help foster children transition to independence. Eastman says she lost her on campus housing at Allen University after she says, DSS did not pay a portion of her tuition. And with no home she says DSS case workers told her she would have to sleep in the Richland County DSS office with the other children they did not have placements for.
Eastman says, "They were like we don't know if we can find you any placement. We've been short on homes for two and a half weeks now. We have no placements for anyone. I told them I could not sleep in the DSS office, I was going to have to find myself somewhere to go. Because I need to wash and I need to be clean to go to school tomorrow."
On four different occasions over the past month, we requested an interview with DSS to ask them about the sleeping situation, finally meeting with Regional Team Leader, Dawn Barton.
Eastman says, "I know that there has been reports on the hotels, and we've gotten a lot of scrutiny, over that but you know, that's not the best case scenario either. I do think you have to weigh, is that better than the county office, is the county office better than that? We are no longer using hotels, as an option for our children."
So, we just wanted to know if what you can see in the video is common practice so we showed it to her.
Barton says, "I think any time is more common than it should be, I think one time is more common than it should be, but I also think this is not something that has been an ongoing historical problem for the agency, and so I think there most definitely has to be protocols put into place, If we do have to have the situation occur we do need to have, even if it is an air mattress, we need to have access to those kinds of things to make the child as comfortable as possible."
Barton tells us, she along with the directors in her region, are working on creating those protocols. She says, "And included in would be an area, specialized if we are in that situation, I'll tell you some of the county offices just aren't equipped to handle children sleeping there overnight, We have purchased air mattresses and things that can be utilized in those type of situations, to make it a little more comfortable for the children."
Senator Katrina Shealy is on the DSS Oversite committee and she finds the scenario troubling, saying it raises questions that need to be addressed. She tells News 19, "That's not a good situation. First of all I don't think boys and girls should be sleeping in the same room. Is an adult supervisor sleeping in the, or not sleeping, staying awake all night watching these children in this room with these kids?"
Meanwhile, Eastman says the reason she came forward is to show how the system is broken so it can be fixed. She says, "I just want by someone hearing my story, that they could help these other children, these babies that are sleeping in the office, give them somewhere that they can be safe at, instead of being held by DSS."
Again DSS says they are working on protocol to make sure that all children and staff are safe if the need arises for them to sleep in an office. Richland County alone has more than 1000 children in the system. Barton says one reason this has been an issue is the need for foster homes.
If you are interested in becoming a foster parent you can contact Heartfelt Calling at 888-828-3555. WLTX is also partnering with DSS to set up a phone bank to answer any questions you may have about becoming a foster parent.
