‘Redundant agency': Child welfare groups doubt Hope Florida's foster care claims
Hope Florida helped more than 21,000 families referred to it by child protective investigators, according to the Florida Department of Children and Families.
During a recent legislative hearing, the program's executive director credited it with helping to reduce the number of Florida children in foster care by 7,000.
But others who are familiar with what the program does — and doesn't do — suggest such claims are exaggerated or false.
St. Petersburg resident Julie Broward said she reached out to Hope Florida after her home was flooded during Hurricane Milton. Broward cares for three grandchildren who had been in foster care and has Stage 4 ovarian cancer. Her brush with Hope Florida was all too brief.
'I never got help,' she said.
Current and former leaders of foster care agencies interviewed by the Tampa Bay Times said they doubt the claims made by Hope Florida. They say that the program founded by Florida first lady Casey DeSantis duplicates what their agencies were already doing and that it has taken resources from existing programs.
'There is already a system to accomplish everything Hope Florida was supposed to accomplish,' said Gerry Glynn, former CEO of Embrace Families, the nonprofit that ran foster care operations in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties for two decades. 'They were holding the hands and being a moral support. Is that worth the millions of dollars they spent on it?'
Three current chief executives confirmed what Glynn had to say but spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing their agencies' reliance on state funding. Glynn and the other chief executives disputed Hope Florida's claim of helping turn around families at risk of having their children removed. Many times, they said, Hope Florida referred needy families to state agencies and services, a role foster care agencies already perform.
After Glynn's former nonprofit announced that it was stepping down as a lead agency, Embrace Families was criticized by the Florida Department of Children and Families for financial mismanagement and placing children in unlicensed settings, reports show.
Glynn said Hope Florida's hotline would be of little help to parents dealing with issues such as substance addiction, mental health disorders and domestic violence that often lead to the removal of their children.
There was also concern that families battling those problems need more than someone showing up with a meal. That was referencing Casey DeSantis' comment at a recent news conference that churches showing up with a tray of lasagna for a struggling single mother can ease poverty.
Effectiveness and Cost
The doubts about Hope Florida's merits come as lawmakers have also asked questions about its effectiveness and how much it costs. The scrutiny came after the organization's charity arm received $10 million from a $67 million Medicaid settlement that was previously undisclosed to the state Legislature.
When asked for comment, a Department of Children and Families spokesperson declined over email when a Times reporter would not share direct quotes ahead of publication of this story nor name the four officials who were interviewed.
'Hope Florida does not provide services, it connects people with others who provide services — like CarePortal,' said the spokesperson, referencing a platform launched 10 years ago.
Florida had a free crisis helpline long before Hope Florida. The Florida 211 Network, comprised of 11 organizations, was officially adopted by the state in the early 2000s, said executive director Tori Greer. It provides callers with access to more than 32,000 programs and services.
The 211 network fielded more than a million requests for help last year. About 348,000 were requests for housing resources, 87,000 for food assistance, and more than 211,000 for mental health and substance abuse support, Greer said.
Hope Florida was created as a pilot program in 2019 before operating statewide in 2021. It operates within the Florida Department of Children and Families, whose secretary reports to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Hope Florida doesn't have an official budget but the department reassigned 150 state employees to become navigators who answer calls made to the program's help line.
That adds up to about $6 million in salaries even before benefits are calculated, said state Rep. Allison Tant, D-Tallahassee, during an April 15 Florida House hearing on healthcare.
She asked why the department had created those positions while state lawmakers are considering a Florida budget that will cut jobs in other state departments.
'I'm frankly astonished we have this whole system which we've now got at least one agency with $6 million in hirings that have happened,' she said.
The secretary of the Department of Children and Families, Taylor Hatch, responded that the positions were funded within her agency's existing budget and amounted to less than 2% of its workforce.
The reassignment of workers to Hope Florida coincided with the department struggling to deal with an influx of calls for help as it recertified the eligibility of about 5 million Medicaid recipients.
Residents calling the department's Medicaid call center during 2023 had average wait times of 32 minutes. Nearly four out of 10 callers gave up waiting. Slow response times were cited in a lawsuit brought by health advocacy groups on behalf of residents who lost health coverage. Florida also received a warning from the federal government that the Medicaid call center wasn't providing timely assistance to those renewing or applying for the benefit.
Concerns about whether the Medicaid call center is adequately staffed persist. A recent report by Unidos, a Latino advocacy nonprofit, found that Spanish speakers waited an average of 54 minutes, with some waiting more than two hours.
Less Transparent
Hope Florida navigators take calls from families in need and log details into an online system called CarePortal, which allows church groups and nonprofits to see requests for help.
But foster care agencies already were using that system. If a family needs help buying a bed for a child, foster care workers typically reach out to local faith groups or nonprofits and use CarePortal to find the closest help by ZIP code. If help isn't forthcoming, the agency will spend from its own budget to fill the need.
The performance of foster care agencies and child protective investigators is documented and posted online, but the state has not released any details about Hope Florida's performance and how much the program costs.
The group has published magazine-style reports on its website and social media pages listing success stories but those provide only the first name of the person helped. The accompanying photographs are stock images obtained online.
Not included in the promotional materials is Acacia Davidson, 50. She offered a less flattering take of her experience.
Davidson said she repeatedly called Hope Florida after her apartment flooded during Hurricane Milton. The help to pay for accommodations she received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency expired and she, her husband and daughter have been living in a motel room since.
Davidson, who has osteoarthritis, said the navigators she spoke with were unable to help her find a subsidized apartment.
'They're very ill-informed on resources they're talking about,' she said. 'I've been the one emailing and calling until I could get some kind of result.'
Fewer Kids in Foster Care
The claim that Hope Florida deserved credit for a drop in the number of children in foster care was made by former Executive Director Erik Dellenback during the April Florida House hearing.
More than 23,000 Florida children were wards of the state when Dellenback was named as Governor's Liaison for Faith in August 2019. He was appointed as executive director of Hope Florida in January but resigned effective May 1 amid the fallout over the use of the Medicaid settlement.
As of March, the number of children in foster care had fallen to just over 15,200.
'I would encourage you to look at where foster care is today,' Dellenback told lawmakers during the hearing, adding that the reduced numbers are because Hope Florida had made it possible for faith and community partners to 'care for families, strengthen families and help that child stay in that biological home.'
Foster agency officials said it's unlikely that Hope Florida's help line contributed to the drop and cite other factors.
Local agencies have spent years developing and implementing evidence-based interventions to go into homes and have eyes on families at risk of having their children removed. Case managers work for weeks or months to get parents to follow plans that include substance-abuse counseling, therapy and anger management classes.
The 2018 Families First Prevention and Services Act made more federal funding available for services that help families before children are removed. The drop in the number of children in care in Florida is mirrored nationally, with federal data showing a 13% decline between 2019 and 2022.
'I would be skeptical that Hope Florida could take that credit when nationally the numbers have come down,' Glynn said. 'Hope Florida clearly does not have a national footprint.'
Other changes specific to Florida's child welfare system likely also helped.
In 2023, Florida ended a more than two-decade experiment that saw child protective investigators employed and supervised by sheriff's offices in seven counties, including Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco.
Some of those counties had among the highest removal rates of children, a 2021 Times report found.
Foster care agencies contracted by the state receive funding from the Department of Children and Families but also fundraise to boost their revenue and the services they can offer. The arrival of Hope Florida has created another competitor for those limited donor dollars, Glynn said.
'I didn't understand why we were creating this redundant agency that will vie for the same resources,' he said.
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