Federal prosecutors Friday filed a statement of interest in a lawsuit alleging Los Angeles County and state agencies tasked with providing welfare and mental health services to older youth in foster care have created a “pipeline to homelessness” in violation of the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.
Youth advocacy organizations contend that state and local agencies have shown a “persistent failure to ensure that `transition age foster youth’ (between the ages of 16 and 21) have meaningful access to the crucial housing, mental health, and other services to which they are legally entitled.”
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The proposed class-action suit was filed last year in Los Angeles federal court by attorneys on behalf of six young people in foster care.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s statement of interest explains that the Americans with Disabilities Act bars public entities from placing an individual with a disability at serious risk of needless institutionalization. Such statements are filed by the DOJ in ongoing court cases to inform the court and the public of its views on certain matters of law…