Is Ohio often penny-wise and dollar-foolish when it comes to foster care?  That is the contention of the Contact Center’s Safe & Stable Families Campaign. During the Hamilton County Commissioners’ meeting Wednesday several people spoke out about the importance of placing children with relatives if they have to be removed from their biological parents.  Yet relatives receive far less support payments than foster parents who are not related.  The amount of support is so small that in many cases the family cannot accept the child.  If the relatives live in a small place to begin with, the county may even refuse to consider placing the child there.

A relative caring for a child receives only $245 per month from Ohio Works First, which is the state program that provides funding.  A foster care parent, on the other hand, receives about $500 per month through a different program.  That is the funding for a first child.  For a second or subsequent child the relative receives only $77 per child while the foster parent receives about $500 each.

Taking two children as an example, the relatives would receive $322 per month while the foster parents would receive about $1,000—three times as much.

Further, the relatives could only receive the children if their home were big enough.  Many relatives would be willing to take in these children but the state won’t allow them because their home does not have enough space or bedrooms.  So they would need to move to a bigger home but the funding allowed does not even cover the bare cost of that in many cases.

The Metropolitan Housing Authority surveys the rents charged in the area.  At the low-end one can expect to pay $516 per month for rent plus utilities for a one-bedroom apartment.  For a two-bedroom the cost jumps to $668 per month and for a three-bedroom it goes all the way to $894 per month.  So if the relatives needed to go from a one to a two-bedroom apartment just to have enough room to be considered it would cost them an additional $152 per month.  If they needed to go to a three-bedroom apartment (which the State would probably insist upon if the two children were a boy and a girl beyond a few years old) it would cost them an additional $374 per month.  Just the extra cost of the housing—let alone the cost of food, clothes, and medical care—is not covered by the state’s reimbursement.  The numbers get even worse when one is talking about 3 or more children.

So then the State is forced to turn to the more expensive foster care system.  A caseworker at Hamilton County’s Job and Family Services Department, who prefers anonymity, has told the Beacon that they have had cases where the relatives would accept the children if only they could afford the larger apartment Ohio insists upon.  But the State won’t provide funding for a larger apartment.  It will, though, pay much more than that to place the children in the foster care system.

Some of the speakers Wednesday stated that even if Ohio doesn’t provide the same funding for kinship care providers, any additional funding would be a great help.  Spokeswoman Lynn Williams stated that they are working with the Ohio Legislature to make the needed changes.  Their goal Wednesday was to convince the Hamilton County Commissioners to endorse such a change in the current system.

Lynn Williams can be reached at .  The commissioners have not yet endorsed a change.

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