BURNABY – British Columbia’s Ministry of Children and Families has announced a policy of only placing children in care in hotels when no other option is available.
It comes in a joint report from the Ministry and the Representative of Children and Youth.
It was written after the death of a youth who fell from an Abbotsford hotel window.
The report finds Alex Gervais was housed in the hotel for 49 days.
The report finds between November 2014 and October 2015, 117 children were placed in hotels, representing 2% of the total ministry case load during that time.
The average hotel stay was 2.7 nights.
Minister of Children and Family Development Stephanie Cadieux says, “Our ultimate goal is to eliminate hotel placements entirely.”
She adds government cannot do it alone and they need more people to step up, get trained and work with government to provide kids in care with stable homes they so desperately need and deserve.
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