There are far more young people in need of foster homes than there are homes to take them in. This is true all over the country, but it’s particularly acute in Buncombe County.

More than 100 local youth are now in homes outside the county because there’s such a shortage of spaces here. The challenge is greater when two or more kids from the same family need homes. These siblings are often separated for months at a time or even longer.

My guests today are Amy Hunstman of Buncombe County Health and Human Services and Whitney Burton of the nonprofit Lutheran Services Carolinas. Much of their work focuses on foster care recruitment and training. We’ll learn how the pandemic worsened the imbalance of supply and demand for foster care, particularly for older children and sibling groups. They also relate their own experiences—rewarding and challenging—as foster hosts, and talk about how the community can support foster children and families.

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