This story is the second in a series on the connections between housing instability and child welfare. This project was supported by the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s National Fellowship and Fund for Reporting on Child Well-Being.

It was a little after 4 a.m. on a May morning when Victoria left the homeless encampment she was staying at near Russell Road on the border of Henderson in order to catch a bus to HELP of Southern Nevada.

Victoria, who is using her first name for privacy, had just entered her third trimester while living on the streets and was desperate to find a safe place, somewhere inside.

She knows better than anyone the consequences that could come from being unsheltered with a baby and how it could lead to having a child removed by the child welfare syste

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