San Francisco Study on black youths depicts a grim reality

• Disproportionate number in child protective services

African American children comprise 11 percent of San Francisco's young population but make up 70 percent of the kids in foster care, according to a new report that also found that more than half of black male youths killed violently on the city's streets during the past two years had been victims of child abuse or neglect. The study on the city's child protective services, conducted by a task force of community leaders, academic researchers and the Department of Human Services, depicts a grim reality of San Francisco's shrinking African American community. The high cost of living, the economic downturn since 2000 and the flight of families from the city eroded the African American community, according to the report. And the families left behind by their friends and relatives, in many cases, are those who are too poor and troubled to leave. Joblessness, poor housing conditions and other family stresses were linked to a disproportionate number of black youths in foster care and in the juvenile justice system, Human Services chief Trent Rhorer told a Board of Supervisors committee Thursday, as the report was presented City officials have long known that more black children are in foster care. But the numbers dropped in the late 1990s, only to rise in 2000, according to the new report. Now Rhorer and the task force say its time to saturate the affected neighborhoods -- mostly Bayview-Hunters Point and Visitation Valley -- with services, education and city jobs. [more]