DHS outlines foster‑care spending, BRS capacity issues and plans for youth‑transition supports

April Flint Gerner, child welfare director with the Oregon Department of Human Services, and Sarah Fox, DHS treatment services program manager, told the Joint Ways and Means Human Services Subcommittee about the agency’s out‑of‑home budget and program priorities under Senate Bill 5526.

Gerner said the well‑being residential budget is financed about 38% by federal funds and 56% by general fund (with other funds tied to Medicaid reimbursements) and cited line items that support residential treatment ($135,000,000) and a separate focus allocation (about $29.4 million shown on agency slides). She described how the well‑being residential and well‑being foster care budgets braid Medicaid, Title IV‑E, TANF and Chafee dollars; DHS identified a federal foster care drawdown figure of roughly $80,880,000 for certain foster care federal fund matches.

Sarah Fox told the committee that utilization of Behavioral Rehabilitative Services (BRS) residential beds has decreased significantly, with "somewhere around 30 children, low thirties, are currently placed in these types of settings." She…