BOISE, Idaho — On Thursday dozens of people gathered in Payette to celebrate a place where children entering foster care can experience childhood joys.
Idaho currently has more foster kids than ever in need of homes, and not enough places for them to go, according to the state.
"Idaho is kind of in a little bit of a crisis right now," Stacy Corbett, program manager for child welfare, told KTVB.
The state has been forced to place kids in hotels, and short-term rentals while they try and find a more permanent living situation a child.
"With that comes, you know, someone else's furniture and someone else's belongings, and it doesn't necessarily feel like the child's space," Corbett said.
Now, there's a space for foster kids to be together.
With help from state funding, six months of renovations, and dozens of donations from local organizations the new Payette Assessment and Childcare Center (PACC) is ready. This is a temporary facility for foster kids entering the system. The goal for PACC is to be space kids come to before being placed with a foster family, or program.
The plan is to welcome foster kids into PACC starting Monday, May 6.
The new facility has 16 beds, all single rooms.
"One of the important things that we find is a lot of kids that come to us have never experienced the ability to have their own room," Corbett said.
The rooms are large enough to have two beds in each, if the facility ever hosts siblings who want to room together.
Corbett said the opening of the facility would not have been possible without multiple local organizations, who donated their time and resources.
Including:
- Freedom Youth Foundation with donations off clothing, shoes and personal hygiene items.
- Adam Roe Painting with paint supplies, tools, and equipment.
- Canyon Electric, who replaced more than 100 lights.
- Sherwin Williams, which donated paint.
- Ninzie Digital Media, who shot before, during, and after footage of the remodel.
- Zach Floor Coating who power washed the entire exterior of the building.
"'The donors came in and did a wonderful paint job for us, and every room is unique, every room has its own color," Corbett said.
Each kid at PACC will be enrolled in online schooling, the state said.
Inside the facility are multiple communal spaces for learning and playing. The facility received many donations of crafts and games for kids to enjoy.
Kids will gather in the kitchen and dining area, where they'll get three hot meals a day. Although the opening of the facility doesn't close the gap of much needed foster care space in the state, it's a start.
"It really just depends on how filled we get," Corbett said. "Certainly, there could be future plans for another location.
At one point, they had six short-term rentals operating with foster care, she said.
In the past couple years, they've been able to knock it down to only three short term rentals. This new facility will help them decrease the number of short-term rentals even further.
"Right now, we are suggesting that we might have one of our short-term rental homes maintained," Corbett said.
While the new PACC facility starts to address the shortage of facilities in Idaho, the state said that's not all we need.
"There's a desperate need for foster parents," Corbett said. "We saw a large dip during COVID."
She said COVID-19 was a time they saw many changes in the community. Just some include businesses closing, and resources for foster family no longer available.
"We need families desperately," Corbett said.
For those interested in fostering, call 211 for more information on the foster program.
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