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Foster home shortage to Collier and Lee leaves some kids in the lurch

By Kristen Zambo,
Naples Daily News

Some nights children sleep in hotel rooms because they have no loving homes to go to.
They have been removed from their homes because their parents or other family members abused, or abandoned them. Some of these children find temporary in hotel rooms. Others are placed by the Department of Families in emergency group homes when no foster family is available to take them.
Local foster care system workers say Lee and Collier counties are
facing the same predicament the state is: Too few foster families for the scores of children who need a safe, temporary home. Oh, there’s a shortage," said Debbie Webb, communications director for the Children's Network of South¬west Florida, which is in charge of recruiting foster homes for the Department of Children & Fami¬lies. "We have to find more (homes). As the area grows, the needs (for more foster homes) will grow." There are 14,202 children living in licensed foster homes in Florida, Webb said. About 1,700 children will be placed in foster care or under protective
Supervision this year in Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades County, Webb said. Of those, between 456 and 500 children each year fun¬nel strictly into foster care in this five-county area, she said. As of Aug. 31, there were 217 chil¬dren in a foster care placement in Lee County. However, there are 158 licensed foster homes in Lee Coun¬ty, Webb said. Of these 217 chil¬dren, 187 were in regular foster homes, 27 were in therapeutic fos¬ter homes and three children were in developmental services foster homes in Lee County, Webb said.

Therapeutic foster homes are for children with behavioural or emotional problems. Develop¬mental services foster homes are for children who have develop¬mental difficulties. There were 85 children in some type of foster care setting in Collier County as of Aug. 31 There are 62 licensed foster homes in Collier County, Webb said. She said 76 of these 85 chil¬dren were in regular foster homes and nine were in thera¬peutic foster homes. Its critical that the communi¬ty and people who have interest (in becoming foster parents) come forward," Webb said.

Some children go to foster par¬ents Jeff and Fritzi Ryan's home in Naples, They have been li¬censed therapeutic foster parents for nine years through the David Lawrence Center, a Naples-based, nonprofit mental health center. They have taken in 39 fos¬ter children over the years, Fritzi Ryan said, and adopted their son Jonathan after he was placed: in their home, .Fritzi said it hurts to know there aren’t always enough homes for all the children in reg¬ular and therapeutic foster homes. Jeff Ryan said they never have turned away a child needing a therapeutic foster home. "Humanity means a lot," Fritzi Ryan said. "As part of my religion I don't have a choice (to reject a child). These kids are absolutely the least of the brethren." Two foster children — a 16-year-old girl and an eighth-grade girl — also live with them. The 16-year-old said she is one of 11 children and the lack of foster families in the area has forced her brothers and sisters to be scat¬tered throughout the region. She said she has bounced between eight schools in the two years she has been in foster care. Staff at David Lawrence has had to turn children away be¬cause they don't have enough homes for them, said Beveriy Belli, program supervisor for David Lawrence's therapeutic foster care program. "We are constantly being asked to take children, and we don’t have homes for them," Belli said. There are kids who are not get¬ting the level of service