You can’t get your kids back until you have housing, and you can’t get housing until you get your kids back. The room was silent for a few moments as conference attendees process what they had just heard. Three “veteran” mothers who had successfully turned their lives around and reunited with their children shared the challenges faced when two systems workagainst them. As a mother, my heart was broken as I thought about what the children must have been going through as they lived in “limbo” for years as their mother fought for them.
A lack of affordable housing stock puts low-income families in precarious living situations. A 2008 survey of parents in Washington state’s child welfare system conducted by Partners for Our Children found that in the 12 months prior 45% of the parents had been evicted, had to move in with family or friends, or had been homeless (Partners for Our Children,2010). It is also estimated that 30% of children in foster care are placed primarily due to a lack of safe housing (Harburger and White 2004). What is even more shocking to me is that research shows that in many cases simply addressing a family’s housing need can keep the family together. (Torrico, 2009, Research ona Different Response). Continue reading




















