A class-action lawsuit alleging Los Angeles County fails to provide safe and stable housing to transition-age foster youth with mental health disabilities will move forward, federal judges ruled this week.
Ocean S. v. Los Angeles County, filed in 2023, alleges that the Department of Children and Family Services too often fails to provide “safe and stable” homes for older teens and young adults in foster care, pushing many into homelessness and sometimes leading to hospitalization or physical and sexual assault. Seven named plaintiffs further allege they were denied behavioral health care and basic support while in the county’s custody.
Defendants sought to have the case dismissed, but on Friday, a panel of judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected that attempt.
“Thousands of young people in L.A. County’s foster care system sleep in their cars, couchsurf with strangers, and struggle to access mental health care — not because the law allows it, but because County and State agencies have ignored their legal obligations for years,” a press release states. “Now, a federal appeals court has ruled that seven of those young people have the right to hold those agencies accountable.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Children and Family Services said the agency “respects the ruling” and is “closely reviewing the court’s decision and evaluating next steps.”
