Jasmine's Story
Housing Helps a Mom Bring Her Daughters Home
“I love my new apartment!” says Jasmine, a mother of two young daughters who recently moved into a beautiful new home. CFR helped Jasmine succeed by connecting her to appropriate services and stable housing so she could bring her children home from foster care.
CFR first met Jasmine when she was charged with neglect in Family Court. The City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) assessed her home as being too messy for children and she was struggling with serious challenges, including domestic violence and cognitive delays.
The Family Court judge initially decided that until those issues were addressed, Jasmine could not care for her children. Her CFR attorney successfully advocated for the girls to go into kinship foster care with her sister and for her to receive liberal visitation. In the mean time, Jasmine would live with her parents and attend therapy and parenting skills classes. Her CFR social worker advocated for her to receive supportive services within her neighborhood, as well as the assistance of a home attendant.
Within a few months of engaging in well-matched services, Jasmine and her team returned to court. The judge, ACS, and the children’s attorneys all agreed with CFR that Jasmine had made great progress and could bring her children home. But she did not have her own housing and there was not enough space in her parents’ home. Jasmine was on a waiting list for public housing, but due to New York City’s severe housing shortage, reunification was delayed for several months. CFR continued to advocate for her to obtain housing so that her children could come home sooner.
Jasmine and her team’s persistence paid off when, in late 2013, she signed a lease on a two-bedroom apartment only a few blocks from her parents’ home. Soon after, she and her daughters moved in together for the first time in two years. Early this year, CFR visited the family at home, taking photos of the apartment to show to the court how well Jasmine and her daughters are doing.
Jasmine is currently enrolled in a parenting skills class for parents with special needs, her daughters are doing well at home and in school, and the whole family is thrilled to be living together again.
“If it wasn’t for CFR, I wouldn’t be here and have my kids back,” Jasmine recently told her attorney. “You guys helped me so much.”