An increasing number of foster care youth are unable to be placed in homes and are consequently homeless. According to a recent investigation by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, teenagers are often sent to a homeless shelter, then turned out onto the street each morning. Troubled youths are also jailed on minor charges because the state can't provide a place to live. Most do not have active guardians, caseworkers or public defenders. Many of these children lack appropriate foster care placements.
Caseworkers often send dependent children to overnight youth shelters as their placement.
Often these children are not receiving any services and are not in school. Status offenses are often precursors to criminal behavior. These youth are at a crossroads and without intervention many do turn to crime out of poverty, anger, hunger and frustration. Others will submit and return to the harmful environments that caused them to flee. Washington State has chosen a course of escalating punitive legislation towards children in juvenile justice and status offender cases.