Economy hurting foster care

TAMPA - The economy has impacted everything, even the foster care system. Local foster care agencies are eager to find loving families for thousands of children waiting for homes.

Pastor Moses Brown of Feed Our Children Ministries in Tampa says our children are at stake.

"We have so many teenagers in the system that a girl asked me.. she said ' Pastor Brown, do anybody want me?'" said Pastor Brown.

Brown's teenage mother gave him up at birth. He entered the foster care system, but quickly found a home.

"She taught me how to play the piano, the organ so I could grow up to be something. I thank God for her," Brown said.

Donna Krauser is the foster parent program director for Hillsborough Kids, Inc., an arm of the Department of Children and Families. She says more foster families are needed.

"They're wonderful kids. They're kids. They come into this situation through no fault of their own," said Krauser.

In Hillsborough County, 1,100 children are in the foster care system, but there are only 400 licensed families, so you do the math.

The priority is to match children with the right families based on many factors, including ethnicity in some cases.

"Often they tell us 'if I could go into a home that looked more like me or that the kids looked more like me or was more familiar to me,'" said Krauser.

Krauser says foster care is usually a temporary situation.

"We really need foster families who understand that and are willing to work with that birth family to re-integrate that child back with their birth family," she said.

Or sometimes, like Brown, the child finds a forever family. He's traveled the world helping orphaned children. Now he's doing the same right here at home.

"If you got one bed, that's one child we can get out. My goal is to empty out the system so that every child will have a place they can call h-o-m-e," said Brown.

Foster parents must complete training, background checks, and certification. They do receive a monthly stipend per child.