Every day, the kids repeated the same routine. From early in the morning, they sat in the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department’s Albuquerque office, scrolling on their phones, watching TV, or finding other ways to pass the time.
Around 10 p.m., they packed a small bag and got in their foster care caseworker’s car. The caseworker dropped them at a youth homeless shelter, where they spent the night on a couch.
At 7 a.m. the next day, their worker picked them up and took them back to the CYFD office, and then back to a shelter’s couch the next night…