Foster homes in NC are on the decline statewide

WUNC News | By Sharryse Piggott
Published April 9, 2026 at 5:25 PM EDT

The amount of foster homes in North Carolina has decreased by 17.5% since 2021, even with thousands of kids in need of foster care. That's according to nonprofit Foster Care Capacity, which collects data on foster care homes nationwide.

Gaile Osborne, the executive director of Foster Family Alliance of NC and a longtime foster parent, said part of the reason for the decline is caregivers were given more and more responsibilities, and the system as a whole got really stretched.

“We had a lot of workers walk away during COVID and shortly after COVID to take care of their own families. And so our social workers, who typically were only carrying maybe 10 to 20 cases, might end up carrying far more,” she said.

Other impacts on foster homes declining include inflation with food, gas, and the cost of homes. On top of that, Osborne said as a western North Carolina resident fostering kids, she and her family went through Hurricane Helene. She added that foster families who experienced Helene had to deal with things like lack of food and water as well as houses being damaged, which resulted in some families walking away from being foster homes.

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