Foster care children and family homelessness

Objectives. This study examined the association between family homelessness and children's placement in foster care. Methods The prevalence of homelessness in a random sample of 195 young foster children was examined Results. Almost half of the birth parents of the foster children had experienced homelessness. Those children were more likely than other foster children to have siblings in foster care and to be placed with nonrelatives. Conclusions. An extremely high prevalence of family homelessness was found among children in foster care. Pot icy implications of the association between family homelessness and placement into foster care are discussed.