STATE ORDERS CHANGES: Acadiana youth homes work to correct violations; see the rankings, join the conversation
Department of Social Services cites Lafayette, St. Landry parish facilities
Amanda McElfresh •
[email protected] • September 29, 2008
Two Acadiana group homes that house children and teens remain under orders from the Louisiana Department of Social Services to improve their conditions after being ranked among the worst in the state late last month.
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The homes are Lafayette's Harmony Center, which has moved from Vermilion Street to Sixth Street, and Sanctuary Inc.'s boys' home in Eunice.
According to DSS records, both homes have had repeated violations during the past few years, including bad plumbing, torn carpeting, holes in walls and missing and broken vents at Harmony; and peeling paint, a lack of insect screens on windows, a loose smoke detector and a basketball goal that was leaning precariously at Sanctuary.
In August, the DSS rated all 67 child residential facilities in the state on a scale of 1.0 to 3.0, basing the scores on physical conditions, youth supervision, staff qualifications, medical needs and incidents of abuse or neglect.
The 13 homes in the state that received a score of 2.5 or below were subject to more scrutiny and evaluations and a corrective action plan by late October.
Harmony received a score of 2.25, while Sanctuary for boys received a score of 2.33.
The ratings came about two months after the Advocacy Center, an agency designated by the state and federal law to protect those with disabilities, issued an alarming report about many of the state's group homes, citing problems including poor physical conditions, undertrained staff and a lack of proper medical and dental treatment.
Such homes, officially known as child residential facilities, are designed to be safe havens for children who are removed from their parents' custody because of abuse or neglect, as well as those who have committed nonviolent crimes and are placed in the homes by the court system. The DSS licenses all such facilities, and most operate on a contractual basis with the state, receiving funds to provide their services.
According to the Advocacy Center, the vast majority of group home residents have emotional and behavioral problems that require special treatment if the children are to become productive members of society.
"We're only talking about physical safety and addressing those needs. We shouldn't even be thinking about that," said Nell Hahn, director of systems advocacy and litigation at the Advocacy Center's Lafayette office. "The focus needs to be on education and therapeutic programs."
Harmony Center
Lafayette's Harmony Center is one of about 25 group homes in the state owned by Baton Rouge businessman Collis Temple Jr. Many of those also received low rankings from DSS.
For several years, Harmony was on Vermilion Street in downtown Lafayette, but was moved to a large home on Sixth Street in the spring after a fire damaged the Vermilion location.
Both Hahn and Advocacy Center paralegal Suzanne Miller said staff members from their agency visited the Sixth Street location in recent months and were disturbed to find roaches, other insects and rodents in the house and surrounding property.
Miller said other problems included bad plumbing and unused furniture scattered about, which the Advocacy Center believed posed a safety risk to the children and teens at the home.
"No child should have to live in a house where there are obvious rodent droppings," Miller said. "We wouldn't tolerate it in our own homes."
Temple said he believed the Lafayette location received a low rating from DSS because the Sixth Street home is a temporary location. Plans are to move the home back to Vermilion Street once workers repair damage caused by the fire.
"When they looked at the temporary location, it was not in as good a shape as the permanent one," Temple said. "Since the hurricanes came, it's delayed our move back. It pushed back our ability to get it completed because we had to get several facilities completed in the Baton Rouge area."
But according to DSS Bureau of Licensing reports, the Vermilion Street location also had dozens of problems dating back to at least 2004.
Those problems included a failure to keep proper records, particularly when one child was hospitalized for reportedly rehashing suicide, failure to have a license for a dentist, missing and broken vents, torn carpeting, holes in walls and a lack of staff training. Such training generally covers treatment plans, reporting critical incidents, children's rights, managing aggressive behavior and safely handling medicine, among other issues.
"We take care of between 12 and 15 children in the home," Temple said. "It's normal when you have 12 to 15 children to have minor citations. Typically, there are 200 to 250 regulations that have to be followed, and we've adhered to a great majority of those over the 18 years we've been in service."
Hahn said she has reservations about the chances of Harmony's directors improving its conditions in the near future.
"We're concerned that this facility is not going to be compliant based on the history," she said. "They've been cited for physical problems, the inspections show they failed to have the appropriate treatment plans. ... Our kids shouldn't be exposed to this."
Sanctuary
In St. Landry Parish, Sanctuary Inc. runs separate group homes for boys and girls. The DSS gave the girls' home, along U.S. Route 190 near Eunice, a rating of 2.92, putting it in the top 30 in the state.
But there are immediate concerns about the boys' home, in a quiet residential neighborhood on West Magnolia Street in Eunice. According to DSS reports, that center also had repeated deficiencies throughout the past few years.
A 2007 DSS evaluation indicated that there were several physical problems at the home then, including residue left behind when air conditioners were removed, peeling paint, holes in walls and a lack of insect screens on all windows.
Miller said that while the home's condition isn't as bad as some other centers across the state, the atmosphere is one she said isn't conducive to learning or social interaction.
"It reminds me a great deal of a nursing home or some type of institution," she said. "There is not a warm feel to this at all."
Johnafort Bernard serves as the executive director of both the boys' and girls' homes, a position he said he has held for about a year. Bernard said he inherited several of the problems that led to the low rating from the DSS and is working to address all of those issues.
"I anticipated that there was going to be a bunch of findings in the boys' home," Bernard said. "But to me, it was a bit after-the-fact. We had already started correcting our deficiencies. I was a new director coming in and I immediately started corrective action."
Bernard said the home houses boys ages 12 to 17 who have been placed there by the court system. Staff members keep track of residents' schooling and behavior and submit that information to the courts, which ultimately decide how long a resident stays at the home, Bernard said.
In the past year, Bernard said he's had most of the interior of the boys' home painted, spent more than $2,000 on a new hot water heater and refurbished the community bathrooms.
Bernard gave a tour of the home on Thursday, pointing out that several renovations are ongoing on one wing, with work being done on beds, air conditioners and flooring.
The second wing, where the home's 10 residents now stay, has been completed. Each room is small, with a bed low to the floor, nightstands and armoires for the teens to keep their clothing. Many rooms also were decorated with a variety of posters and photos. There are no TVs in the individual rooms, but instead a large sitting area near the front of the building with a large-screen TV set. The home also has its own cafeteria.
Bernard said he's proud of the improvements he's made, but says more could be done if the state gave more money to homes like the ones he runs.
"They give us enough to cover the basics, like food and basic housing, but not anything else," he said. "What we need is for the governor to give us additional dollars to do what we have to do. For example, there's been the minimum-wage increase, but we're not getting any more money for our staff. We're steadily doing repairs, and things like that can put us in a precarious position."
What's next?
Although DSS has been rocked in the past month by the departures of former Secretary Ann Williamson and former Deputy Secretary Terri Porche Ricks, the department has not announced any changes to the ratings or the time frame in which underperforming homes must comply with standards.
When asked via e-mail for more detailed information about what led to the two Acadiana homes being rated so low, Nanette Russell White, listed as the DSS public information officer on the news release, said all media requests were being directed to Interim Secretary Kristy Nichols' office.
White's response also was copied to DSS Communications Director Cheryl Michelet, who did not respond to The Daily Advertiser by Friday afternoon.
Both Hahn and Miller said they are pleased with the state's first steps, but believe more needs to be done to address the problems.
"Part of the problem is that the department needs to be given more authority by the legislature to take action when these facilities are substandard," Hahn said. "However, they have not taken the action they can take."
Hahn said state officials have the ability to do things such as take underperforming homes to court and fire owners who run centers that don't meet standards, but cannot issue fines to homes that violate licensing standards.
"They need more accountability," she said.
Rather than shut down the homes, both women said they'd like to see serious action taken to improve the centers. If not, they worry about what the consequences could be for the children.
"Where are these kids gonna go?" Miller said.
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