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So I have a 4 bedroom house and I share it with my brother and his soon to be adopted son. I've been waiting for the adoption to be completed so I can foster again and since it should be done before school starts back, me and bro restarted the foster classes, it had been more than a year for both of us and since my home closed, I have to retake them before I can reopen.
Anyway, we were in the training and they brought up how hard it is to find home for larger sibling groups and later we talked about it. Our parents had 6 of us and we think larger sibling groups are beautiful. Right now we have an office downstairs and the 4 bedrooms are upstairs. We have 1 open bedroom at the moment, but we were talking about my brother moving into the office and using the open 2 upstairs bedrooms for children, plus my nephew says he'd love to share his room, they're pretty big bedroom, its a 3000 ft house, so we would have space for 6 with my nephew sharing with 1.
I know there are rules for what constitutes a bedroom for the kids, but what about for adults? It's an enclosed room with a large window. The only issue is that while the office is a good size, it doesn't have a closet, but it does currently have a wardrobe. It's a guest bedroom at the moment. Do you all think licensing will have an issue with an adult using an office as a bedroom?
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Per our Building Department, to be classified as a Bedroom. There needs to be a closet.With regards to Licensing. Are you planning to call the office a 5th Bedroom in ' Legal Standards '.Personally, and Professionally speaking in Advocacy of Adults Licensing should not have any issues with it, but you may have issues if Advocating the space for ' Foster Kids?? '
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Thanks Juli. That's what I was thinking since minimum standards only specifies that a foster child's bedroom needs a closet. I wouldn't want a foster in there anyway, there's only a half bath on the first floor and I'd feel more comfortable with having foster kids on the second floor and an adult on the first floor.
Every jurisdiction has its own occupancy regulations for dwellings. And for a building to be OK for adoption or foster care, it must meet all such regulations.I live in Montgomery County, Maryland. Here, to be considered a legal bedroom, a room must have a window and a closet. Whether a freestanding wardrobe will be acceptable as a closet would be up to the housing inspectors.Occupancy regulations also cover how many people can live in a dwelling of a certain size. Make sure that your home is allowed to have the total number of people you hope to have.Also, many foster care providers would be concerned if the parent didn't sleep on the same floor as the child/children. So make sure you are clear that YOU will be sleeping upstairs with the foster kids, and could also be available to check on your brother's child.And check the size of the bedroom that your brother's child occupies, to see whether it meets your local standards for a bedroom occupied by two children. There will be square footage requirements that must be met. Also, remember that EACH child must have his own space for clothes and belongings. In some cases, that means TWO closets and TWO dresser in a room used for two children, so check it out.Another issue to check out is age and gender requirements for room sharing. The foster child sharing a room with your brother's adopted son will have to be male and reasonably similar in age; as an example, you probably couldn't put a toddler and a teen together.Sharon