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Wake County houses foster youth in office spaces due to placement shortages.

Therapeutic foster care lacks capacity, delaying placement for high-needs youth.

COVID-19 reduced foster homes and staff at group facilities, straining the system.

On any given night, a half-dozen or more children and teenagers are sleeping in a Wake County government building.

They sleep on air mattresses in converted conference rooms, tucked away from public spaces across multiple floors of Wake County’s Human Services Swinburne building.

There’s one shower. All their meals are brought in because there is no kitchen. Laundry is picked up and brought back.

“They do go on outings to the YMCA, to parks, differe

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