New Mexico
CYFD launches new center to keep foster kids from sleeping in offices
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Foster teens sleeping overnight in office buildings: it’s a problem the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) has promised to fix, as it struggles to find foster families. Now, the department is opening up what it calls a solution. KRQE News 13 spoke with CYFD about those plans and others who feel its not enough.
“It’s been a long year for me since I came onboard a year ago, in really trying to restructure the agency,” said Teresa Casados, cabinet secretary for CYFD. One of the problems CYFD has dealt with as the state faces a lack of foster families surrounds kids and teens staying overnight in their offices—where conflicts between workers and foster children have escalated to the point of 9-1-1 calls.
The situation—highlighted in a KRQE Investigates report—has been hard to fix according to Casados, who says the agency has had little luck signing up new foster parents.
“From the 124 events that I think we’ve had, we had 19 people that actually engaged with us after those events,” Casados said. Despite low interest, the department’s been working to get kids out of CYFD’s offices in a different way: a new multipurpose home for boys aged 12 and up in Albuquerque.
“It’s a CYFD facility that we have. It used to be the Girl’s Reintegration Center, and we’ve made some upgrades to that location. AMI Kids is operating that for us,” Casados said.
The facility has four bedrooms with three beds to a room, a classroom, and an outdoor recreation area. Staff includes a chef, a nurse, and therapists onsite. Casados says they have partnerships with a charter school and a local community college to do online school and have a tutor onsite. They also have a partnership with Workforce Solutions.
“It’s really about normalcy for those kids and providing them the environment that will prepare them for you know, life. Some of these are older youth. They’re 15, 16, 17 years old,” Casados said.
“We’re still continuing to look for placement, but if they end up going into Fostering Connections or transitional living for youth, we want to make sure they’re prepared and have the skills to be successful,” Casados said.
So far, five kids are living there. The facility has the capacity for 12, and Casados hopes to have the rest of the boys living in the offices transition to the center by month’s end.
However, some advocates aren’t thrilled with the venture, saying the state has other obligations it still needs to meet. Jesse Clifton, an attorney with Disability Rights New Mexico, says CYFD has already settled a lawsuit in 2020 that highlighted the overuse of congregate care.
“The allegations of that lawsuit in general terms alleged that children who have been subject to abuse and neglect and had been brought into the custody of the state of New Mexico were further subjected to more abuse and neglect as opposed to updating the resources and supports they needed to thrive,” Clifton said.
“The lawsuit aimed at total system reform, and the lawsuit was brought in 2018 and it settled in 2020 with the state agreeing that the child welfare system in New Mexico was in need of pretty total reform,” Clifton said, “Those have overwhelmingly been disappointing progress reports as there’s much of the settlement that has yet to be satisfied and many of the deadlines have passed.”
He says prior to the lawsuit, children were inappropriately housed in group care: “Everyone has always agreed, I mean from the time of the settlement agreement to the corrective action plan which was as recent as last year—children belong in family homes. That’s the goal.”
Clifton says the new center doesn’t align with that goal. “That term multi-service home, multipurpose home, is a little bit of a misnomer because for all of its amenities is not a family home. It’s still congregate care and so we just have to keep those realities in mind,” Clifton said, “While this is movement of some kind, it’s not the movement that was agreed to and it’s not again the solution. This is more of a band-aid than a solution.”
Casados says the goal here is ending the office stays: “I think this is the better of those two situations, but our goal really is to make sure we can get those kids into permanent placement in a family-like setting…You know locations like this, you know multiservice homes are not ideal and there will be some people that don’t think this is the best course of action for us to take. We just want to make sure we’re meeting the needs of the kids.”
CYFD is also working to create a similar home for girls in Albuquerque who are currently staying in their offices.
CYFD emphasizes: they are looking for people to become foster parents to help with this issue. “Any help that we can get in encouraging individuals across the state to become foster families or even to give it a try if they want to be a respite family and try that slowly, we’d love to have a conversation with them about that,” Casados said.
For more information on becoming a foster parent, head to CYFD’s website here.
SALT LAKE CITY — A missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from Utah has passed away in his sleep unexpectedly Saturday in New Mexico, according to a news release from The Church.
Elder Caleb Gene Martin, 21, died from a medical cause that has not been determined, Church spokesman Sam Penrod said in a statement.
According to The Church, Martin had been serving in the New Mexico Farmington Mission since May 2024. He was from Salem, Utah.
Elder Caleb Gene Martin, 21, died in his sleep on Jan. 3 from a medical cause that has yet to be determined. He was serving in the New Mexico Farmington Mission. (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
“We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and fellow missionaries. We pray they will find comfort and strength through their faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ and feel the Savior’s love as they honor Elder Martin’s life and devoted missionary service,” the statement said.
According to the release, an autopsy is planned.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
Southeastern New Mexico will see some snow while other places will generally see cooler, more winter-like temperatures. See the latest conditions at KOB.com/Weather.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Some notable cities in New Mexico could see multiple inches of snow, along with possible wind and cooler temperatures Sunday into Monday.
There is going to be snow across the southeast. A winter storm advisory is in effect all throughout areas like Ruidoso and out toward the Texas state line. A winter storm warning for Carlsbad and even a blizzard warning for the Guadalupe Mountains. These advisories and warnings indicate it’s going to continue until Monday at 6 p.m.
How much snow might there be? Ruidoso could see a few inches, along with other higher-elevation areas. Carlsbad might even see as much as two inches and Roswell has a very good chance of snow.
Wind gusts ranged from 23 mph for Hobbs and Clovis, 25 in Santa Rosa and similar readings in other places. Temperatures could hit sub-freezing temperatures in places like Ruidoso, Roswell, Carlsbad and Hobbs. Meanwhile, Gallup and Grants could get into the single-digits. Plus, places like Albuquerque and Santa Fe will be in the 20s but the big “winner” is Alamosa, Colorado, with 2 degrees.
Chief Meteorologist Eddie Garcia shares all the details in his full forecast in the video above.
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