LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Toys littered Katie Krikorian's living room Monday evening, which made sense for onlookers, as she was raising her three biological children while also caring for three foster kids including the baby she cradled in her arms.
"Babies, children, teenagers, all of them, they have no control over their own lives," she said. "They are subject to the whims of the adults around them, and they do nothing to deserve being thrown into a system where they aren't constantly adored and loved."
Krikorian is a Champion Foster with Clark County's Department of Family Services.
The DFS told county commissioners Monday that there weren't nearly enough fosters like her in the county.
DFS Assistant Director Jill Mirano said there were an average of 3,300 kids in their care daily with 684 licensed foster homes in which to house them.
"You don't need to be a mathematician to know that's a problem," Mirano said.
Ellie Roohani is an attorney and former judge who has worked closely with the foster system.
"I think the folks who are in it are doing the best that they can with the resources they have," she said.
Roohani said potential fosters often worry they won't be able to support the children they take in despite training from the county and support programs in place for prospective guardians.
"If anybody is saying I don't know if I can handle it, they have the exact right mindset to be a foster parent," she said. "The fact that they have the self reflection to see, 'can I be this person to step up for that child?' is exactly what we need."
Others, she said, worry they will get too attached to the kids who may later be taken from their custody.
"The question people always ask me," Krikorian said, "is, don't you get attached? And the day that I stop getting attached is the day I close my license. They deserved to be loved so unconditionally."
Krikorian said the thought of kids being sheltered instead of at a home where they belong keeps her going, and she called on others to do the same.
"We are taking on a small burden," she said. "But we are taking it away from the children that we love and care for."
"You're never really going to know until you try," Roohani said. "And honestly until people start stepping up and trying, we're never going to have enough."
Anyone interested in adopting or fostering can inquire about it through the Department of Family Services website.
