The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has a new fund aimed to help children in foster care who live in social services offices because of a lack of foster family placements.
At any one time, an average of 32 children are staying at DSS offices statewide. Jackson County DSS Director Cris Weatherford said there are still children living at his office in Sylva and that the state program will provide flexible funding to help his county.
“What’s the old saying? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," Weatherford said. "It's definitely going to open up a new funding source for us that will again take some of the pressure off the counties expenses towards caring for these children. It's not going to solve any of the grand problems. That's not the intent of it.”
The program provides nearly 2.3 million dollars this year and will double next year. Weatherford said that since the start of 2024, staff have spent 25 nights with children sleeping at the D-S-S office in Sylva.
The fund is a pilot program funded by the NC General Assembly in the 2023 North Carolina state budget.
"Some children in the care of social services have particularly complex needs and can get stuck waiting in emergency departments or sleeping in government offices," NC Health and Human Services Secretary Kody H. Kinsley said. "We are providing our county partners flexible funding to replicate and expand programs already working in pockets of the state to help ensure these children get the right care at the right time."
