Working The Phones, Looking For Homes

Working The Phones, Looking For Homes
February 22, 2004 By COLIN POITRAS, Courant Staff Writer
Jennifer Tobias has been working the phones for two hours straight.
She is begging, pleading, cajoling, doing anything she can think of,
to convince overtaxed foster parents in Hartford County to take
another kid.
"We have two siblings we are trying to keep together. Do you think you
can help us for the weekend?" the foster care specialist asks, making
her pitch to yet another foster parent. "They are school-age. Ten and
5. ... Please, I'm desperate."
The woman declines. Tobias hangs up the phone and groans.
It's 4:30 p.m. on a Friday and there are still 13 children in state
custody who need places to sleep tonight.
"I still need a home for a 15-year-old girl," Tobias says wearily. She
rubs her hands along the sides of her face and scans her list of
today's homeless kids for the umpteenth time.
It could be worse. The previous Friday, after Hartford police stumbled
upon a possible child pornography ring and two other major cases
opened up in New Britain and Manchester, 22 children flooded into the
DCF office on Hamilton Street - all of them after 2 p.m.
Mounting pressure to keep kids safe has resulted in near-record
numbers of DCF removals the past year, workers say. But as the kids
stream in, the number of available foster beds continues to drop. On
this day, 161 children are living in overcrowded foster homes that
were forced to exceed their licensed capacity because of the shortage
of beds.
The Foster Care and Adoptive Services unit where Tobias works is the
nerve center for emergency foster care. The room buzzes like a
telemarketer's boiler room as "matchers" such as Tobias work the
phones amid the tiny office cubicles and pots of flowering plants.
"This is the worst I've ever seen it," Tobias' partner, Jeanette
Alicea, says. "Children are deteriorating more, the volume of kids is
greater. The seriousness of their issues has increased."
A tote board gives workers a snapshot of today's emergencies. A
13-month-old boy with a burn. A 3-year-old with special medical needs.
Two brothers, aged 10 and 5, who have been shuttled around different
foster homes every night for the past three weeks. A 15-year-old girl
from the Dominican Republic who speaks no English and whose family
wants nothing to do with her. Two 8-year-old girls who have been
acting out sexually. A 14-year-old girl, pregnant and abandoned.
Tobias' 15-year-old.
By 5 p.m., Tobias and Alicea are shouting to each other over their
cubicles, each trying to think of someone they haven't yet called.
"Do you know Grace?" Alicea asks.
"She's closing," Tobias says. "The boys she has have to be out by Nov.
21."
"What about Lori?" Alicea asks.
"She's not ready to take any more kids right now," Tobias replies.
"She took a pregnant teen last night."
"Are there any ... homes you can think of," Alicea asks, worried about
the two brothers.
"I can think of one," Tobias replies.
"I don't care, it's only until Thursday," Alicea says, always willing
to settle for a temporary placement when something more permanent
isn't available. "I know she has two bunk beds, but they're definitely
time-limited."
Another hour passes and the building's other offices grow dark. A
cleaning crew comes in, vacuum cleaners humming around the desks.
Alicea keeps dialing. Tobias stands next to her, watching, both hands
on the sides of her head. The clock strikes six.
"Arrgh," Alicea says in frustration as another call comes up empty. "I
get automated voice messages. I need a voice ... a real voice."
It can take two hours just to get a call back, if people bother to
call back at all.
"A lot of people don't want to see [DCF] on a Friday afternoon,"
Alicea says. "They want their weekends to themselves."
Tobias goes back to her desk and tries a Hispanic woman who she thinks
might take a Hispanic child in need of a home.
"Please, please, please," Tobias mumbles to herself as the phone
rings.
"We beg a lot," Tobias says sheepishly. "Sometimes I feel like a used
car salesman."
A voice answers on the other line. Tobias perks up.
"Hi, Mrs. Harrison, this is Jennifer Tobias from DCF. I have a little
boy; he's 10 years old. Can I tell you about him?"
She closes the deal.
By 7 p.m., the staff has managed to cut the list to six. A local
shelter agrees to hold a 16-year-old girl for another night. They
didn't want to keep her. She's disruptive. She runs away.
Tobias and Alicea push on, their voices increasingly desperate. Family
specialist Elizabeth Saez stops by. She noticed an empty twin bed in a
foster home the other day. Alicea thinks of one of her 8-year-old
girls, seizes the moment and makes the call.
"Would you at least give her a try?" Alicea pleads to the woman on the
other end of the line. "I can check with you Monday. She needs to be
placed tonight. You have some concerns? That's OK, tell me what we can
work out."
After a few minutes of negotiations, the woman consents. Alicea mouths
an "I love you" to Saez, who walks away leaving Alicea to wrap up the
details.
Next door, Tobias is pleading for a place to send the 15-year-old girl
who speaks no English.
"We're so, so desperate," Tobias tells the hesitant foster mother on
the phone. "We were just wondering if you had a place for her?"
Alicea and Tobias are tapping into their most reliable homes, the
dedicated families who may already have a foster child or three but
who are always willing to take one more. The foster mother consents.
Tobias beams and gives a big thumbs up.
Alicea is down to her two sibling boys and still stressing.
"My boys, my boys, where am I going to put them?" Alicea says like a
protective mother. "A 10-year-old and a 5-year-old who are siblings is
hard. It's like night and day. Usually a family wants a child 0-5 or
10-13 ... but I'd rather stay a little longer than split up my boys."
By 7:30, Alicea and Tobias call their supervisor, Kim Clarke, for
permission to do an emergency overload. It is a last resort.
Alicea's two brothers take two hot line beds that are supposed to be
reserved for emergency removals in the middle of the night. The
Bristol foster home already has nine kids. The two boys will make it
11.
http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/hc-d...lines-breaking

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