Kids sleeping on cots due to dire foster care shortage in Pueblo County

PUEBLO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - The Pueblo County Department of Human Services (PCDHS) said they are in desperate need of foster and kinship families.

A foster family is a temporary family willing to take in a child or a sibling group for a period of time. A kinship family are trusted, safe adults who a child or youth already knows. They can be biological family members, like an uncle or grandparent, or adults who are “like family,” such as a neighbor, friend’s parent, or coach. It can be scary to live with people who you have never met, which is why kinship families are preferred.

"Our goal is always to try to help mom and dad or whoever that birth family is to get clean, healthy, safe so that the kids can return to them. Foster care is always meant to be temporary," said Amanda Ledbetter, Pueblo County Department of Human Services Program Administrator.

Currently, Pueblo County is struggling to find both kinship and foster families.

Ledbetter said at times, the PCDHS has been resorting to kids sleeping on cots in their offices because they're not enough foster or kinship families.

"This is not their home and this is not a home environment. This is an office. They do not have their bedroom and they do not have their own bed. I mean, we are having to put up a cot or something of that sort to give them a safe place to stay," said Ledbetter.

PCDHS could not provide an exact number of how many kids are in limbo waiting for a home to open, but said those numbers change constantly.

The Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS) told KRDO13 that 184 kids are currently in foster care in Pueblo County. Some of those kids are having to live with foster families in neighboring communities, ripped away from the only place they have known because there are not enough people in Pueblo County willing to take them in. Currently, there are only 85 certified kinship and foster families in Pueblo County, according to CDHS.

Kim Sosa is a certified kinship caretaker. She took in her daughter's kids while her daughter Kendra Sosa focused on getting sober. 

"I said, your kids are good, just do what you need to do and get yourself straightened out," said Kim Sosa.

Kendra has now been clean and sober for four years and has regained custody of her two sons, who are 6 and 7 years old. Kim and Kendra now live together and co-parent the children.

"They really helped me out a lot. if it wasn't for them, I probably wouldn't have been able to get sober," said Kendra Sosa.

While Kim and Kendra's story is ideal and one that every social worker wants to see. It's not the reality for all kids right now. 

"Just not enough families are willing to sign up to do this sort of work. Too many kids not enough beds," said Ledbetter.

If you want to become a foster or kinship family, scroll below.