Home Operator Must Be Watched

When UC Irvine invited the establishment of a group home for troubled teenagers at the school’s medical center in Orange last July, it appeared to be a wise move.

Orange County needs such facilities. The private, nonprofit firm that would operate the home had a good record running similar residences in Los Angeles County. Medical school students of psychiatry could benefit from working with the teens.

Unfortunately, less than a year after the first teenagers moved in, the group home is slated for closure. Officials at the medical center said the youths housed in a three-story building that once was a psychiatric building were “out of control.” Campus police were called to the building more than 200 times in the first eight months of the home’s existence. Most of the calls were for fire alarms set off mischievously or for runaways. But some were for assaults or vandalism.

The home’s operators should have realized that the children in their care required more supervision than most teenagers. Many had long histories of abusive or violent behavior, run-ins with police, emotional problems that made it difficult or impossible to find foster parents to take them in.

When foster parents could not be found, county social workers entrusted the children to the Research and Treatment Institute, which ran two homes in Los Angeles County before opening the one in Orange.

The need for such foster homes is great. Los Angeles County officials said they need beds for 200 more troubled youths. In Orange County, officials said only one other home cares for the most disturbed category of teenagers. That building has just six beds. County officials said they could use several dozen more beds.

The 34 beds in Orange were intended for boys and girls, ages 12 to 17, rejected by many other homes. Government funds provided the private operators with up to $60,000 per ward per year. That should be enough money to provide sufficient security and counselors to prevent the type of incidents that occurred in Orange. UCI officials said that after the number of teenagers dropped and the number of staffers increased, problems at the facility lessened considerably. But social services agencies have stopped putting more children at the facility, which UCI also contends owes months of back rent.

Research and Treatment Institute officials argued that troubled teenagers cause problems despite the level of security. But as Orange showed, with increased security the problems diminish. State regulators will have to look carefully at the institute’s planned staffing levels in considering its application to open a new, larger facility in Los Angeles County.