Ideal?

I would think they all would go to a family shelter.

Not as a rule. There are many children who live on the streets or in a car with their parents. In some of the larger cities, the parents school their kids in how to beg properly & often it is the children who earn the living for the family while the parents stay drunk or stoned. IF someone reports them, I imagine it is possible that the child might be removed from the situation; however, everyone seems to turn a blind eye to the obvious & it just doesn’t seem to happen

Or send the kid to family for awhile. Foster care is not ideal, I hear.

Realistically, I am guessing they are sold to human traffickers, or whored out.

My understanding is that unless someone actually calls children’s services, the children will stay with the parents. And it is not likely CPS would act unless there was some danger to the children. Saying someone is about to be homeless is not a danger to the children. They (the parents) could be losing their home or apartment but maybe will make the decision to move in with a relative. To have CPS jump in and snatch the children away would be a gross overreach.

Usually the kids will go with the parents, whether it’s to a shelter or on the streets.

I worked as a child welfare caseworker for over ten years in an affluent county in New York state.

If the parents are good parents, the goal is always to keep the family together. Some counties have family shelters, some don’t. The county I work in has all kinds of shelters (family shelters, shelters for men, shelters for women, shelters for all genders). The family stays there together, the children go to school, and all kinds of services are offered (therapy, medical, and housing assistance to find housing, substance abuse treatment, among other services).

If the family is offered a shelter and they still prefer to sleep outside, then the children are taken away. As it was described once, “you can sleep on the railroad tracks but your children can’t sleep on the railroad tracks.”

Once the children go to foster care, it’s a whole song and dance to get them back. It’s not like just put them there temporarily as a housing situation. Foster care entails court visits and the bio parents have to jump through hoops and prove that they’re worthy of having the children back.

Another question where I’m left wondering “what is it she’s asking?” Is she asking for a fixed rule (legally). Is she asking about what actually happens as routine? Ideal for the kids? Surely she must recognize the impossibility of answering this question without comprehensive knowledge of the individuals, jurisdictions, situations—the variables unroll to the horizon.

@jca2 does an admirable job explaining the county’s take on the way things should be, but is that what the question asks?

@stanleybmanly: By answering with the details that I put, I was trying to explain that there are a whole lot of variables involved. When she says in her question “wherever the ideal thing happens. Ideal for the kids.” I was showing that sometimes it’s not really known what’s ideal for the kids until some digging is done.

If someone is offered a shelter and they’d prefer to sleep on the street with their child, obviously something else is going on.

If someone goes to a shelter and it’s discovered that they didn’t pay their rent because they chose to buy drugs instead, then there’s more going on then was initially realized.

All kinds of stuff can come out, and of course it all depends on the caseworkers involved, the resources available, etc.

Sometimes, a family will become homeless but they will have friends and family who can help them out or who they can stay with temporarily. All kinds of things can change what the answer would be.

@LadyMarissa “There are many children who live on the streets or in a car with their parents.” that’s exactly why I posted the OP. Great answer by the way.

@KNOWITALL “Or send the kid to family for awhile.”
@seawulf575 “They (the parents) could be losing their home or apartment but maybe will make the decision to move in with a relative.”
The ones with relatives to live with are not the ones this thread is about though. This is about those who don’t for whatever reason.

@jca2 Great answer!

@stanleybmanly
When you got it you got it, as the expression goes, and they got it.

Touche-I guess?

What a waste of brain.

And time! Apologies.

When the rain falls, does it fall on my house?

@stanleybmanly Just bring back the stanleybmanly from a while ago.

It’s the same me. I swear & I’m not saying these things simply to mess with you. Your question leaves anyone reading it to GUESS what you are asking, and the answers reflect that very fact.

And your “touche” and “And time!,...” reflect what?

They reflect my agreement with you regarding my “wasted brain”, wasted effort, wasted time.

^^^ @stanleybmanly I CIA what you did “There!”

I didn’t mean it as a cut or dig. If I cannot make myself understood, she is right.

Those who got it got just got it done, those who don’t make excuses, noise and the like.

…Correcting myself (the importance of the coma)
“Those who got it, just get it done, and those who don’t, make excuses, noise, and the like.”

@flo Coma or comma? ha

Yes.