Amid ongoing provincial investigations and audits, Chatham-Kent’s child welfare organization is sounding the alarm on how a lack of resources has led to some local children being housed in an office building.
For the last four years, Linck Child, Youth & Family Supports in Chatham has been forced to shelter nearly a dozen children in their office building on Grand Avenue West due to an absence of suitable licensed foster care or emergency shelter options in the area.
All of these children have some form of developmental, behavioural, or mental health issues that require extra care. While ranging in age, the most recent children to be sheltered and cared for at the Linck facility were 10 and seven.
“It’s not a home. It’s not a place to raise a child, and because of our legislated responsibility to provide child protection services, it has become our responsibility,” said Linck Executive Director Teri Thomas-Vanos. “We’ve been doing that without adequate staffing and without funding.”
Without adequate programs for children with special education needs, Thomas-Vanos said some parents have been forced to the brink, and that pressure has trickled down to children’s aid.
“Sometimes caregivers aren’t in [a position] to take care of themselves well, so it makes caring for their child even harder,” she said.
Linck has had no choice but to rely on its staff to provide care for these children. Thomas-Vanos said it has been very difficult, but called her staff “heroes” for stepping up to the task.
After maintaining this level of care for years, Linck is now facing a $3 million deficit.
“We’ve had to have layoffs,” said Thomas-Vanos. “We’ve had to run a deficit management plan with the ministry to [figure out how] to fund work that we’re not funded to do.”
These resource and finance issues facing the municipality’s children’s aid society are not exclusive to Chatham-Kent.
Ontario’s ombudsman launched an independent investigation in September 2024 after receiving several reports about children being inappropriately housed.
Thomas-Vanos said Linck is one of seven organizations in Ontario that is being investigated.
“The reality is that this is not ok for children in Ontario,” she said. “For me, it’s not ok for kids in Chatham-Kent.”
The Ontario government also launched financial audits into all children’s aid societies across the province in October 2024. However, the release of those audits has been delayed multiple times.
The provincial government has been made aware of the impact of high-needs children within Chatham-Kent’s children’s aid sector.
Thomas-Vanos said she has spoken to Chatham-Kent-Leamington MPP Trevor Jones several times about the obstacles Linck is facing. Michael Parsa, Ontario’s Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, has also toured the Chatham facility to see how children have been sleeping in office spaces.
“It’s not ok. We can do better for kids,” said Thomas-Vanos.
CKXS News has reached out to provincial officials for comment, but a response was not received prior to publication.
