B.C.'s child advocate calls for complete ban of hotel use for children in care

B.C.'s representative for children and youth is callingfor a "complete ban and prohibition" of the province's practice of using hotels for children that are in itscare.

"I want to see the use of hotels as placements for children and youth completely eliminated," Mary EllenTurpel-LafondsaidWednesday.

Her comments follow the release of aa joint report between the government and her officethat found a total of 117 childrenin the province's care havebeen placed in hotels over the course of the year.

• Read the report
• Review of Alex Gervais's death tainted, family says

It's a far cry from the original estimate of only two youths the ministry provided in Septemberafter the death last year of 18-year-old AlexGervaiswhofell or jumped from of a hotel window while in government care.

Even Turpel-Lafond wassurprised by the numbers, which she says are more than double what she expected.

"My best assessment .... was approximately 50 children," she said.

AfterGervais'sdeath,Turpel-Lafondsaid the ministry had "a lot to answer for," and demanded to know why the depressed First Nations youth was not in the care of a foster family or group home. She estimates he spentmore than100 days in hotels during his time in provincial care.

Children and Families Minister StephanieCadieuxsaid herministry islooking into whyGervaiswas staying ina hotel for such anextended period of time. If it does not report back by March the representative could open her own inquiry.

Average hotel stay 2.7 nights

Although the 117 childrenrepresented only two per cent of the children in the B.C. Ministry of Children and Family Services' care between November 2014 and October 2015, the report was not able able to provide more historical figures or look at the number of children staying inshelters, SROs or other types of placements.

The vast majority of hotel placements occurred after children and youth were taken into care unexpectedly,or after an existing placement for a child or youth broke down, according to the report.Most hotel placements were made during evening and weekend hours.

The report also found that some of those children were placedin hotels morethan once. Nine children stayed at a hotel twice, another three times while a fourth was placed at a hotel four times.

While 55 per centof those placements were for one night, the average hotel stay was 2.7 nights. The longest stay, however, was 49 days.

"Hotels are not appropriate living arrangements for children in care. Children in care may only be placed in hotels in exceptional circumstances for shortdurationsapproved by a designated director when no other appropriate resource is available," the report said.

Opposition leader John Horgan said "it's absolutely shocking" that the ministry did not have a handle on the number of children placed at hotels prior to this report.

He said the government is not properly funding the children and family services ministry.

"It's the continualstarving of the ministry that's led to the shortages that leads to bad decisions and putting 117 children into inappropriate housing at a time they need to be nurtured," the NDP leader said.

Ministry agrees with advocate

The province agrees with the report's findings, but says it's not realistic to implement them immediatelyand could not provide a timeline for when hotel stays for youthwould be completely eliminated.

"In a perfect world, they would never be used," Cadieux said.

Cadieux says the province isnot lacking resources, but it needs tofigure out how to better handle emergency placements which, according to the report,was the mainreason for children staying at hotels

She also said more people need to "step up" and get trained to provide foster homes.