The Maryland Department of Human Services will no longer place foster youths in hotels, a controversial practice that came under renewed scrutiny after a teen in state care died by suicide in a Baltimore hotel last month.
Human Services Secretary Rafael Lopez issued the new directive last Wednesday, exactly one month after a 16-year-old girl living in an East Baltimore hotel was found dead. The medical examiner determined the girl, who The Banner is not naming because of the circumstances of her death, had died from diphenhydramine intoxication. Diphenhydramine is the active ingredient in Benadryl.
“Hotels, motels, office buildings, and other unlicensed settings are not in a youth’s best interest and must be discontinued immediately,” Lopez wrote in the directive. “Youth experiencing stays in unlicensed settings is inconsistent with state and federal laws, and departmental standards and policies.”
The directive, which was first reported by The Baltimore Sun, calls for all foster youths currently living in hotels to be relocated by Nov. 24. There are six children in the state’s care currently residing in hotels, a spokesperson for the human services department said Monday.
Lopez’s directive comes after Gov. Wes Moore said he was seeking “firm accountability” from human services’ leadership after the girl’s death.
“We will not rest until every child in our state is safe, thriving in a permanent home, and surrounded by a loving family,” Lilly Price, a spokesperson for the human services department, said. “We are committed to ending the use of inappropriate stays for all children in our care, and that goal is becoming a reality.”
Advocates for years have sounded alarms on housing vulnerable youths — children with complex emotional needs and mental health issues and who are more difficult to place — in hospitals and hotels. But the practice has persisted.
In the case of the teen who died last month, her mother, Brooke Ward, previously told The Banner that her daughter had been suicidal and that Maryland should’ve known better than to put her in a setting where supervision could be lax. The girl’s autopsy stated she had survived a prior suicide attempt.
“They knew she was high risk,” Ward said in an earlier interview. “Why would you take your eyes off her?”
An attorney for the girl’s family did not immediately return a request for comment Monday.
Also last month a legislative audit found widespread issues with the state’s foster care system, including the practice of placing children in hotels. Over a two-year period, 280 children in the state’s care were sent to live in hotels, sometimes for months or years on end and at enormous cost to taxpayers. Auditors determined the cost of contracting personal caretakers, required for hotel settings, came to $1,259 a day.
Those caretakers are not always licensed, and function more like babysitters than caseworkers, advocates said.
Mitch Mirviss, the attorney who has been suing the state and Baltimore City’s social services department for decades, called the directive a significant step forward. However, he questioned why the state is not banning the use of hospitals, too.
“I’m very pleased that this horrible, illegal practice will stop,” said Mirviss, an attorney at Venable. “But if hospitals are going to continue being used as placements, this is only half a solution.”
Lawmakers are scheduled to grill Lopez and other human services officials regarding the audit findings on Wednesday. It’s possible this directive could help turn down some of the heat and signal to the legislature that the department is taking the problem seriously.
House Minority Leader Jason Buckel, an Allegany County Republican, called the previous policy allowing hotel placements “absurd.”
“It is blatantly wrong, and thankfully, DHS has finally reached this conclusion,” Buckel said in a statement. “Such a policy must never be allowed to be implemented again. Maryland’s foster children deserve better.”
But even with Lopez’s directive, placement challenges remain. Children in the state’s care can sometimes languish in hospitals or, in other cases, be sent to live in homeless shelters. Judith Schagrin, a former assistant director of the Baltimore County Department of Social Services, said in an interview she worries homeless shelter placements will become more common once hotels are banned.
“You’ve been abused and neglected and now you’re in a homeless shelter,” Schagrin said.
She acknowledged that, in either case, such placements are often made out of desperation and are a result of an inadequate number of facilities or families willing and able to house children with complex needs.
“It’s a symptom of a failing placement system,” Schagrin said. “I don’t want to pretend Maryland is unique … I’m not sure any state has completely solved this.
“But I don’t care about other states. I care about our children.”
Banner reporter Jessica Calefati contributed to this article.
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