LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Nearly 90 Kentucky foster children have slept on cots in government buildings and showering at YMCAs this year after not being placed in the care they need.

The Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) said 87 foster kids since the beginning of this year have had to spend the night in a social workers office, a hotel or even state park. Secretary Eric Friedlander admitted to a group of lawmakers Monday it's a problem.

"It's a tragedy," he said. "It's something that none of us wanted."

CHFS said the kids are the most severe cases in the foster system, predominantly teenage boys. But the reasons for lack of placement range from a history of violence or fighting to intellectual disabilities, it's not one group of kids. The first cases of kids staying in a social worker's office started in rural communities more than a year ago. Now, it's a frequent alternative when there's not enough psychiatric residential treatment facility beds, or a facility turns a child away.

In Louisville, the L&N building downtown is one of the identified places. 

One Louisville lawmaker, who was also a foster mom for more than six years, said this is extremely troubling.

"There's not a lot that surprises me just because I don't think the community at large understands the severity of the situation and the importance of it," said Rep. Sarah Stalker, D-Louisville. "So I think people have to get super creative because obviously if we cannot find a placement for a child, we need to make sure that their basic needs are being met."

Typically, there are one to three kids statewide at a time staying in a temporary situation overnight for one to two days. The most that CHFS has tracked for one child is 17 consecutive nights.

Social workers are paid overtime and a shift premium if they need to stay overnight with a child.

"I would just encourage people to remember these are children and they did not deserve what has happened to them," Stalker said. "And we have a responsibility to figure out what role we play as a community and as an individual to address that and to say that this is not OK."

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle want to see a change. Sen. Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, wrote a letter to the cabinet in April calling for improved circumstances for Kentucky's at risk kids.

Friedlander said the state has the money to raise Medicaid reimbursement rates to help better the chance for a child to get the placement it needs, but CHFS hasn't done that yet. It actually reduced the behavioral health service organizations rates but later brought them back up in June after Adams inquired in April.

Improved rates allow for kids with the most need to be provided with more intensive care.

Gov. Andy Beshear announced earlier this year an influx of $41.5 million in additional funding to support children and the people providing care to them. The goal is to ensure that there are plenty of providers who are "ready, willing and able to serve every child in the commonwealth," Beshear said at a news conference in May.

But still, some lawmakers pointed blame on Beshear for the failings of the foster care system.

Copyright 2023 WDRB Media. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All Rights Reserved.