36,000 foster homes lost since 2018
The U.S. has lost 36,000 licensed foster homes since 2018, creating a severe shortage that is pushing children into hotels, offices, and detention centers.
Snapshot · The Shawn Ryan Show
#314 Jen Lilley - The Dark Truth About the American Foster Care System
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Jun 18, 2026
Where this was said
Foster Care as a Human Trafficking Pipeline
At 10:05 · chapter starts 8:30
Jen Lilley opens with what she considers foster care's darkest and least-discussed truth: the system is a pipeline for human trafficking. Shawn Ryan connects it to his own experience of having a gut feeling about abuse without the evidence to act. The conversation quickly turns to the HHS campaign 'A Home for Every Child,' led by Alex Adams. Lilley is explicit: she has no personal beef with Adams, but the decision to lower licensing standards to address a shortage of 36,000 lost foster homes since 2018 is catastrophically misguided. In her mental model, roughly 30-40% of foster homes are genuinely good, 30% are okay, and 40% are hellholes. Easing entry requirements doesn't recruit from the first category — it floods in from the last. Her prescription is the opposite: make it harder, not easier, to become a licensed foster parent.
Lowering Foster Care Standards Is a Magnet for Pedophiles
The federal 'A Home for Every Child' campaign aims to ease foster parent licensing requirements to address a shortage of 36,000 lost homes. Jen Lilley argues this is catastrophically backwards: lowering the barrier doesn't recruit good-hearted families — it removes the filters that keep abusers out of the system.
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