The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is urgently working to respond to the surge of unaccompanied children at the border. The goal is to ensure ORR has the capacity to safely serve children, in settings designed for children, only for the time necessary to unify a child with their sponsor family, typically a parent or relative already in the United States. During an influx, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) may not have sufficient bed space available within its licensed care provider network to place unaccompanied children. In this situation, ORR arranges for the use of influx care facilities and emergency intake facilities to provide supplemental capacity; however, the use of temporary spaces, like converted convention centers, is not ideal for children.

Because of the emergency nature of influx care and emergency intake facilities, they may not be licensed or may be exempted from licensing requirements by State and/or local licensing agencies. Influx or intake care facilities may also be operated on Federally-owned or leased properties, in which case, the facility may not be subject to State or local licensing standards.

ACF is interested in leasing unlicensed, empty residential campuses or buildings, particularly those that are ready for children right now and have capacity to house over 100 youth. If you have an unlicensed facility that is turnkey and available, and/or if you have bilingual youthcare workers to help staff the facility, please note that when expressing your interest to ACF. The biggest barrier to bringing new facilities online is having the staff to provide care and case management services to the children.