Maryland ends housing foster youth in hotels after teen’s death sparks outrage 

After the death of 16-year-old Kanaiyah Ward in September, Maryland’s Department of Human Services was given deadline to end the practice.

In the wake of a Maryland foster teen’s suicide inside a Baltimore hotel, the state’s Department of Human Services says it has met its deadline to remove all foster children from hotel placements across the state.

On Monday, Nov. 24, the agency told The Washington Post it had successfully found placements for every child who had been living in unlicensed accommodations.

“There are no youth in hotels, shelters, or offices,” Maryland Department of Human Services spokeswoman Lillian Price told the publication. “When the Moore-Miller Administration came to office, over 40 youth were staying in hotels. The administration committed to ending hotel stays as a top priority.”

The Monday deadline was created in October by Human Services Secretary Rafael López, coming just weeks after 16-year-old Kanaiyah Ward died while staying in a Baltimore hotel, CBS News reported. According to police records, Ward’s assigned “one-on-one” chaperone attempted to wake her for school around 5:45 a.m. on Sept. 22 but was unable to get her to respond. The supervisor — whose employer was redacted in the documents — said they were reassured by other staff that Ward was simply a “heavy sleeper.” The chaperone then left the hotel for several hours, returning around 10:30 a.m. to find Ward no longer breathing and called 911.

An autopsy later determined the teen had died by suicide and noted an empty bottle of diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in Benadryl, near her body.

Ward had been in foster care for several years, NBC 4 Washington reported. According to the family’s attorney, she struggled with mental health challenges but came from a loving, stable home that remained closely connected to her. Her relatives, including the teen’s mother, had been trying to get her out of the hotel placement the state assigned her to, he said. Then came the devastating call that she had been found dead in her room.

“This wasn’t a situation where she had abandoned her daughter – quite the contrary. She was fighting for her daughter to get the help she needed and do everything she could from the position she was in,” attorney Thomas Doyle said.

Ward’s family is now demanding answers and accountability, insisting the system must change. “Changes need to happen. I realize budgetary concerns and this and that. But if we’re not protecting the children, then we’re all failing,” Doyle added.

In the days that followed her death, López issued a statewide directive prohibiting local social services offices from placing youth in hotels. The department said it has been working to limit the number of children in unlicensed settings since López took over in 2023, including updating data systems earlier this year to better track placements and reduce hotel stays.

At least 280 Maryland foster youth spent time in hotels between fiscal years 2023 and 2024, according to the department.

All children previously staying in hotels have since been moved into licensed settings, including kinship caregivers, foster homes, and congregate care facilities, Price said, per the Washington Post.

“The work is far from over,” she added. “We will not rest until every child in our state is safe, residing in a permanent home and surrounded by loving family.”