DeWine said there is a “foster care crisis of immense proportions,” as children are witnessing their parents overdosing every day in Ohio.
When those children need to be taken into the custody of their local children’s services agency, there are fewer places for them to go, he said.
Daryl and Roxann Gunnarson own the Father’s House in Hamilton, which is part of their non-profit New Oaks Community project. It is located on three acres on D Street in the Rossville Historic District.
The property formerly housed the Butler County Children’s Home, an orphanage started in 1869 for orphans of the Civil War.
MORE: Hamilton mansion to become foster care facility
They would like to open the facility this fall with a maximum of approximately 35 children on the property. They were not surprised the issue of foster care has come up during the drug crisis.
“When we started to put this together the idea was to be able to put together something not just for the few foster kids that are going to live here but to be a support network for all of the foster kids and families in Butler County,” Daryl told the Journal-News. “The drug problems affect foster families but we want to have a facility that foster families — kids and parents — can come to and get the help that they need and be encouraged and that will help kids not to be displaced as much.”
He added that about 50 percent of the people who become licensed as foster care parents quit after the first year.
“We are trying to change those statistics,” he said.
MORE: Company helps Hamilton foster home with fresh coat of paint
Roxann said the community volunteers have been very generous with their time helping paint and refurbish the mansion. She expects the facility to be open by the end of October, adding her husband and their adopted daughter are the only ones living in the mansion.
Daryl said even before DeWine’s message for more foster families was announced, people in the community were becoming more aware of the need for a place like the Father’s House.
“A lot of the naysayers have come around and I hear people in the neighborhood asking, ‘How are things coming along?’” he said. “They see that we have more of a plan as we move forward and we will have a ;positive impact on foster care as things go along.”
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