Can Fresno County properly care for its foster youth? Office ‘housing’ raises doubts

News that broke just over a week ago was hard enough to fathom: Foster youth under the protection of Fresno County social services were left sleeping on conference room tables and the floor of a county office that became a makeshift home.

Then dropped the next revelation: That the youths could come and go as they pleased, given that the social workers assigned to their cases could not legally stop them from leaving the office building. About 60 were runaways as of earlier this past week.

“They can be out there using drugs, they can be out there prostituting, they can be out there just hanging out and then decide, ‘OK, I’m coming back,’” said Lorraine Ramirez, a veteran social worker with the Fresno County Department of Social Services’ child welfare agency who broke the story to Bee staff writer Yesenia Amaro. “We’ve dealt with all of it.”

There are 2,700 children in the county’s custody. Those who were being kept at the L Street headquarters were foster youth with significant behavioral or emotional needs who were removed from unsafe family homes.

At times, there were less than five kids in the office. At one point, there were 12. But even one is too many, given the trauma the children have already endured in their short lives.

Why were such kids being housed in a county office, sometimes for hours, sometimes for days? Because Fresno County does not have enough qualified foster families to adequately place them in a home. State laws have tightened up qualifications and ended the option of transferring foster youth to out-of-state programs.

Once the story broke, The Bee Editorial Board recommended that officials try to find better space within all the county’s properties for a makeshift shelter.

That was done, and on Saturday the youths began to be housed at the former University Medical Center in southeast Fresno. Longer-term, the county plans to have new housing in a warehouse being converted in Clovis. That should be ready by Thanksgiving.

The housing aside, the central question is this: Can the public trust county government to properly care for its foster youth?

Accountability issue

In an interview with Bee Opinion Editor Tad Weber, County Administrative Officer Jean Rousseau took the blame for not acting sooner to fix a situation he had known about.

Rousseau said several county supervisors met with representatives of the social workers in August and found out then about kids sleeping in the L Street office. Those supervisors asked Rousseau to look into it. “I did not follow up on their direction. So I take responsibility for that. If I did that at that time, we probably would not be talking today.”

While he was aware of kids being at the L Street location, Rousseau did not know they slept there. “I am frustrated the department did not contact me and say we have this issue.” This he blamed on social service managers who kept him out of the loop.

Rousseau admitted the episode is a “black mark” on county government.

Supervisors’ reaction

County Board of Supervisors chairman Steve Brandau confessed in a meeting that “it is very bothersome to me to find out that this was happening right under the noses of the Board of Supervisors.”

Clovis-area Supervisor Nathan Magsig posted a Facebook video Tuesday and said several times in it that the foster youth situation “breaks my heart.”

But in that same video, Brandau characterized the situation as a “little mini crisis” of a kind happening elsewhere in California.

Such tone-deafness does not inspire confidence in his leadership on this problem. And, the remaining three supervisors have been quiet about the situation.

Problem for years

The county’s top executive admitting he was in the dark about the extent of this problem. Social workers claiming their managers have been aware of it literally for years.

Clearly, the proper operation of social services broke down, leaving one wondering what else may be malfunctioning in one of the most public-facing departments in county government.

Rousseau would not get into possible disciplinary action of the staff under him. But someone in social services leadership needs to either resign, be demoted or be fired. This situation was bad, and warrants a strong response to restore public trust.

Rousseau has asked a former head of social services, Cathi Huerta, to lead a review of the department’s actions, as well as how well the Foster Care Standards and Oversight Committee is functioning. It was formed decades ago when Fresno County came under state scrutiny for housing foster youth in motels.

Voters need to carefully consider whether the supervisors’ response has been appropriate. Not one of them held a press conference calling for a sweeping review of the foster youth program. If the five men elected to represent the county can be seemingly unmoved when it comes to the least among us, the voters should return them to private life.