Foster mom speaks out against placing at-risk teens in hotels

A Manitoba foster parent and social worker is speaking out, saying the practice of placing high-risk children and youth in hotel rooms does not meet their needs.

Tammy Aime is a specialized foster parent who has four at-risk teenage girls currently living in her home with two of her own children.

Aime said teens in her care have acted out by running away, drinking, using drugs, attempting to commit suicide and even trying to turn tricks under her roof.

However, she said providing them all with a stable and safe home, where they feel they belong, can make all the difference in their lives.

"I really focus on giving the children in my home — even my own children — a voice to be heard, and that seems to work for me," she told CBC News in an interview.

"When a child feels heard, they stabilize a lot quicker."

It's that kind of care and support that teens don't get when they're placed in hotel rooms by child welfare authorities because of a lack of foster homes, she said.

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"There's so many checks and balances within the system that the kids become files, not people. I prefer to keep them as people, and that's why I work in foster care," she said.

More support needed

A social worker by training, Aime is studying toward a master's degree in marriage and family therapy at the University of Manitoba.

She said Manitoba's child welfare system desperately needs more foster parents as well as more support for them.

"Foster care is not seen as employment, so the money that is earned is very small and certainly not a livable wage within Manitoba. And as a specialized care provider, the expectations placed on you to meet the needs of the kids are great," she said.

Aime said general foster care providers get a rate of $21 to $27 a day to meet all of a child's needs.

"When you go into the specialized level, you get the $21 or the $27 per day plus you get a small service fee for your skill. In my case, I get a service fee of $45 a day for 24 hours a day [of] work," she said.

"I'd be curious to compare what I get for a stable environment versus what we're paying for a hotel, which is not a stable environment."

Below are examples of some basic per diem rates that are set by the provincial government to cover foster parents' expenses.

With all the expenses added up, the rates total $22.11 for the foster parents of children up to the age of 10 and $27.45 for foster parents of youth aged 11 to 17, according to documents obtained by CBC News.