North Carolina
‘Lack of resources’: Increasingly, NC foster children are having to sleep in county offices
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — The increasing strain on North Carolina’s foster care system is leading counties to scramble to find places for children to stay. On many occasions, this has led to children sleeping in county offices.
“This is not an issue that counties have been prepared to have to deal with. And so we’re making the best of an unfortunate situation,” said Diamond Wimbish, Wake County’s child welfare assistant division director.
Wimbish said Wake County has converted visitation areas within the DSS office into bedrooms; equipped with beds and dressers. County social workers serve as caregivers in these settings in addition to their regular roles.
Last year 78 children slept in the office; a majority stayed for longer than a week.
This number has tripled since 2020 when the county reported just 23 children utilizing the makeshift housing.
As this sleeping arrangement becomes more common, state officials started tracking data earlier this year.
The data obtained by the I-Team reveal dozens of foster children each week are sleeping in DSS offices, DSS housing, or hotels. In early June, 56 children statewide had no homes to go to. Counties are not required to report and dozens of counties don’t; so the true extent of the problem could be much more significant.
Michelle Shaw has fostered an estimated 30 children in Wake County for nearly two decades.
“It’s been one of the most rewarding experiences ever to see kids get adopted or to see them graduate high school, graduate college. It has been absolutely amazing,” Shaw said. “I have seen kids experience the beach for the first time or a traditional Christmas for the first time. So it has been really amazing. It’s been a fulfilled 18 years.”
She said she believes short-term stays in offices and other temporary homes will have a negative effect on children.
“The current shortages in foster parents impacts the kids the most. Children are having multiple temporary placements and it increases the issues of instability,” Shaw said.
While she still finds fulfillment in fostering, many others have stopped accepting children into their homes.
ALSO SEE: Growing need for foster care families in North Carolina during summer months
Wake County lost 157 licensed foster homes since 2019, according to data from the NC Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS). Other counties, such as Orange and Vance, lost half of their foster homes.
The state has about 5,800 homes — 18% fewer than before the pandemic.
And with nearly 11,000 foster children, it’s not hard to see why some kids are ending up sleeping in county offices.
This reduction has led to children sleeping in offices, but at other times it’s meant sending them outside of North Carolina.
“More and more we’re having to place children outside of the county, outside of the state, which definitely impacts their ability to reunify with their families,” Wimbish said.
The shortage of homes also puts a strain on existing families like Shaw’s.
“I currently only have one foster child, and when I need a recharge or a reset, it’s often difficult to find respite or a support home, especially in the local area,” Shaw said.
Another part of the problem, Wimbish said, is that children have an increasing number of complex behavioral health problems. It’s a difference that Shaw has seen firsthand.
“The children are having more crisis-management issues, some kids are more aggressive now. And whether that be physical or verbal, you know, that is very challenging when you’re dealing with it,” she said.
Many foster families and DSS workers are not trained or licensed to care for children who have more complex behavioral and mental health needs, which leads to even fewer placement options.
“As resource-rich as Wake County is, there’s a lack of resources to meet the needs in the community,” Wimbish said.
Wimbish does not foresee the need for these spaces to go away in the near future so leaders are continuing to explore every option.
One of those potential solutions could be found in Cumberland County, which operates a DSS group home that serves as an emergency facility so children do not have to stay in offices when they don’t have a placement.
As Wake County officials explore more long-term solutions, they have hired more staff to specifically oversee the children who stay in the county building.
“I think initially their response was is this a temporary solution that’s needed because it’s a result of fallout from COVID? But we are now, you know, two years later and still seeing this problem and actually seeing an increase in, not decrease. And so we’re realizing that there are permanent,” Wimbish said.
North Carolina’s solar energy landscape is at a crossroads as the state works to meet its ambitious climate goals.
Under House Bill 951, passed in 2021, North Carolina is required to cut carbon emissions in the energy sector by 70% from 2005 levels by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. However, meeting these targets is proving difficult as energy demand surges.
Jeff Hughes, a commissioner with the North Carolina Utilities Commission, says that it’s challenging to maintain grid reliability while pursuing aggressive decarbonization goals.
“If we have two gigawatts of load coming in the next three or four years, it’s going to be very difficult to model our way, to solarize our way out of it,” Hughes said, pointing to the growing demand from industries like AI-driven data centers.
Duke Energy, the state’s largest utility, has said fossil fuels are essential to ensuring reliable power amid increasing demand. Critics argue that the company’s reliance on natural gas and coal could derail progress toward cutting emissions.
North Carolina has long been a leader in solar energy, initially driven by smaller, five-megawatt projects. Today, the focus has shifted to larger installations, which are more efficient but face growing local opposition.
Carson Hart, CEO of Carolina Solar Energy, said scaling up has been key to increasing clean energy capacity. “Moving to these bigger projects has been really beneficial for getting more megawatts in the ground and meeting the state’s climate goals,” Hart said. But she noted that large projects often draw pushback from residents concerned about aesthetics and land use.
Rural areas are at the heart of the state’s solar boom, hosting about 80% of large-scale projects. Reginald Bynum Jr., director of community outreach at the Center for Energy Education, said rural North Carolina plays a critical role in meeting the state’s clean energy goals.
“My job is to make sure rural communities don’t miss the movement,” Bynum said. “These projects bring jobs, economic growth, and opportunities to areas that desperately need them.”
The economic impact of solar energy is substantial. In counties with significant solar development, property tax revenues have increased by as much as 1,600%, according to the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association. These funds have supported schools, infrastructure, and emergency services in areas facing population declines and economic challenges.
The state’s clean energy sector also supports more than 110,000 full-time jobs, according to a report from e2, with many more expected as solar development continues.
Hughes said the state’s carbon plan, which is updated every two years, will play a key role in charting a path forward.
“There’s a lot of check and adjust that will occur over the next few years,” he said.
As North Carolina advances its solar energy ambitions, balancing the needs of developers, communities, and environmental goals will be essential to achieving a sustainable and reliable energy future.
North Carolina
3 men charged in connection with woman’s death at Cook Out restaurant in North Carolina
Two men have been charged with murder in the death of 29-year-old Davicia Jean Ann Lee at a Cook Out restaurant in Durham, North Carolina, last month. A third is facing a weapons charge.
Two men have been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a woman at the fast-food restaurant Cook Out in North Carolina.
Twenty-three-year-old Alexander Kenyon Carlton Jr. and 19-year-old Calvin Jerade Spence Jr. have been charged with first-degree murder in the killing of 29-year-old Davicia Jean Ann Lee late last month in Durham, the Durham County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release on Friday.
A third man, 18-year-old Jamari Treyvon McKnight, is charged with one count of going armed to the terror of the people, which basically means terrorizing someone with a weapon like a gun.
USA TODAY could not immediately find attorneys representing the three men.
The shooting occurred just after 10:30 p.m. on Oct. 26 at the Cook Out on South Miami Boulevard, according to the sheriff’s office. When deputies arrived at the scene, they found Lee dead.
The sheriff’s office called the shooting “an isolated incident” that happened after shots broke out following a fight, WNCN-TV reported.
Arrests made in fatal shooting of Davicia Jean Ann Lee
Detectives arrested Spence and Carlton on Thursday and took them to the Durham County Detention Center without bond on charges of carrying a concealed gun, felony conspiracy, going armed to the terror of the people and first-degree murder, the sheriff’s office said.
McKnight was also taken into custody and arrested Thursday night on misdemeanor going armed to the terror of the people, according to the sheriff’s office. The Morrisville police arrested him and he is currently being held in the Wake County Detention Center until his first court appearance, the agency added.
The investigation into Lee’s homicide is ongoing, while all findings are now in the process of being turned over to the Durham County District Attorney’s Office for prosecution, according to the sheriff’s office.
The USC Trojans are in pursuit of flipping two class of 2025 recruits, Nela Tupou and Alex Payne. Can the Trojans flip one or both of these players before national signing day?
Nela Tupou Player Profile
Nela Tupou is a 6-4, 220 pound tight end/defensive end out of Folsom, California. He is rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the 43rd-best ATH in the class of 2025 per 247Sports.
Tupou committed to the Utah Utes in February of 2024, but he just recently visited USC last weekend for the Trojans’ 28-20 win over the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
On3 is now predicting that Tupou will likely flip this commitment from Utah to USC.
Alex Payne Player Profile
Alex Payne is a 6-5, 265 pound offensive tackle out of Gainesville, Florida. He is rated as four-star recruit and ranked as the 16th-best offensive tackle in the class of 2025.
Payne committed to the North Carolina Tar Heels in January of 2024, but he as well as Tupou, visited USC last weekend.
In 247Sports recruiting analyst Tom Loy’s updated crystal ball prediction, he had Payne flipping his commitment from North Carolina to USC. Loy has a good track record of predicting where recruits will end up as his all-time hit rate for predicting recruits’ final destinations is 81.64 percent.
USC Bolstering Up Offensive Line to Go Along With Weapons
One of the glaring holes for the USC Trojans this season has been the offensive line. For USC to bounce back next season, they will have to get much better in the trenches. This has been exposed in their first season in the Big Ten. Landing Tupou, who can both be a factor in the run blocking scheme as a blocker, and Payne, one of the top tackle prospects in the country, would go a long way for next season and the future of the program.
Barring a flurry of transfer portal decisions, the Trojans will have an abundance of skill position talent coming back next season.
Freshman running back Quinten Joyner has been the second best back this season behind senior running back Woody marks.
Four of the Trojans five leading receivers are sophomores. Makai Lemon, Zachariah Branch, Ja’Kobi Lane, and Duce Robinson all have shown flashes of potentially being a number one wide receiver next season.
Add in the Trojans starting sophomore quarterback Jayden Maiava and they have one of the youngest teams in the Big Ten. If USC continues to address the offensive line in the last days of the 2025 recruiting cycle and in the transfer portal this offseason, the Trojans could be a dangerous team next season.
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