Kids sleeping in shelters, hotels: NC desperate to help 12,000 children in foster care

More than 12,000 children are in currently in North Carolina’s foster care system; however, the actual need is even greater.

The Children’s Home Society of North Carolina receives about 300 requests from the state Department of Social Services (NCDSS) every month to help children in immediate need. A shortage of licensed foster families means many children cannot currently be placed.

A video produced for Children’s Home Society (CHS) reveals the thoughts and feelings of a young boy writing a letter to a judge.

He wrote, "Good morning your honor. Thanks for letting me speak to you."

The boy continued by explaining his fears, "I thought I would be separated from my brother. I was also lonely, because we had no family."

Mikaila Reinhardt, now a family recruitment specialist with CHS, lived through a similar crisis. She described the crisis, saying, "A father who was unfortunately an addict and fell into that addiction pattern; a mom that kind of was on the same pathway."

At the age of 9, she moved around, staying with relatives.

"And then at 12 years old, I entered my first foster home. I was moved across 15-plus different foster homes before I found my forever family," said Reinhardt.

In her role with CHS, she helps other children in need.

She said, "Being here to stand in the gap for the youth in need because we are in such a crisis across North Carolina and in the United States."

It’s a crisis, she says, that kids "are sleeping in shelters or hotels and in Department of Social Services offices."

The NCDSS and the Children’s Home Society are stepping up recruitment for more foster families. They also plan to help more families through the licensing and placement process.

The focus is meeting a child’s needs. "Obviously, a child needs a one-on-one connection or a family setting. It’s just tragic that they have to be in that situation," said Reinhardt.

She says more children need a happy ending, and soon.

The CHS ended with the boy saying, "Today is probably going to be one of the happiest days of our lives. My one wish would be for everyone to have the best family and the happiest day too."

Reinhardt said, after she aged out of the foster care system, she pursued "adult adoption" with a woman whom she calls her "now mom" who had previously been her childhood therapist.