The state is using hotel rooms and short-term rental properties to house foster children because West Virginia lacks mental health care for children entering the system. (Photo by Perry Bennett/West Virginia Legislative Photography)
Although Gov. Patrick Morrisey is focused on improving West Virginia’s troubled foster care system, data from the state’s judicial system shows the number of foster children living in hotels has not improved over the past year.
“Unfortunately, we haven’t seen any real decline in the number of hotel youth,” he said Cindy Largent-Hill, director of the Division of Children’s Services at the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. She presented the information to House committee members Thursday at the state Capitol.
“We tend to average between 15 and 25 children per day in a hotel,” she said.
West Virginia Watch reported this week that the state Department of Human Services is also using short-term rental properties like Airbnb to house foster children. A child in care was recently injured while living in one of the rental properties and receiving medical care.
Largent-Hill served last year as a court-appointed monitor of the state’s utilize of hotels and short-term rental properties to house foster children after a case involving a 12-year-old boy Attempted suicide in a hotel last year.
The state’s utilize of hotels and short-term rental properties for children is due to the lack of psychiatric treatment beds and appropriate care options.
According to Largent-Hill, some children entering the system require an intensive hospital environment for ongoing medication monitoring and counseling; Many of the children struggle with self-harm and suicidal thoughts, she said.
“I have never seen children so challenging in my life, and the mental health issues we see [and] the autism, the low, low cognitive ability,” Largent-Hil said. “We’re seeing more kids, younger kids, more engaged kids. It’s really heartbreaking what’s coming into the system…The use of hotels is a symptom of a problem in the entire child welfare system.”
As of February 2020, there were 810 public treatment beds available for children in the state; This number has now fallen to around 149.
“Unfortunately, the number of beds in West Virginia has declined in recent years,” Largent-Hill said. “After August 1, 2025, unfortunately West Virginia lost the beds of our psychiatric inpatient treatment facility.”
The state’s shortage of pediatric beds has also led the state to send hundreds of foster children to out-of-state facilities. According to DoHS data, there are 380 children in out-of-state facilities in states including California, Florida, Texas and Utah.
Morrisey announced a $6 million initiative to bring children from other states back to West Virginia, and he must renovate state facilities and hire staff to care for these needy children.
DoHS Secretary Alex Mayer reported positive changes in child welfare over the last year, but told lawmakers, “As far as the hard metrics go, we’re still seeing kids leaving the state. We’re still seeing kids using hotels.”
The department is in discussions with domestic and international providers to improve specialized care for children. They also have contracts with vendors to get children out of hotels, Mayer said.
“So that took time, too, and I think we’ll see a turnaround as we start to sign these contracts and put these things into action and establish the training and licensing,” Mayer said. “I am confident that we will continue to see progressive changes within the system in some problem areas where these numbers have traditionally not changed.”
There is a shortage of child welfare attorneys in West Virginia
Largent-Hill pointed to other problems in the child welfare system from the court’s perspective, including that the state saw a decline last year in the number of attorneys licensed to take on child welfare cases.
“We continue to have concerns and a desert of attorneys dealing with child abuse and neglect,” she told lawmakers. “We have a few racetracks that only have one.”
Last year, Morrisey vetoed a bill This would have given public defenders and guardians ad litem who handle child welfare cases an additional $10 an hour raise for in-court and out-of-court work. In his Veto messageMorrisey said he “agrees with the intent of this bill” but noted that lawmakers have cut their proposed funding amount for Public Defender Services.
The one sponsored by the Republicans legislation The aim was to remedy the lack of ad litems for guardians, who are required in child welfare cases and represent the best interests of the child. The shortage has meant cases often languish in the court system while children wait for indefinite employment.
Del. House Judiciary Committee Chairman JB Akers said foster care reform will again be a focus of his committee, which met for the first time Thursday.
There are around 6,000 Children in foster care in West Virginia.
“…Until this issue is significantly resolved, that will be the primary focus of this committee for as long as I am chairman,” said Akers, R-Kanawha. “We have many issues to address, but child welfare issues in this state will be the primary issue we address.”
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