Child Haven, whose population dropped from 226 on Wednesday to 191 on Thursday, has 110 children who need foster homes. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

Three months from now, Child Haven will have desperately needed additional space to shelter abused and neglected children, thanks to a donation of time, materials and $511,500.

The donation, which will allow for the speedy expansion of Howard Cottage, was hailed Thursday by Clark County officials dealing with the problem of where to put a growing number of minors taken into protective custody.

Child Haven already turned its gymnasium into a makeshift dorm for boys and has temporarily closed its doors to hospitals holding infants who require emergency shelter.

After the crisis was publicized in the past couple of days, Child Haven's population was reduced from 226 on Wednesday to 191 on Thursday, Clark County Manager Thom Reilly said. Even with that reduction, "our Child Haven population figures are staggering and continue to be," he said.

He said nongovernmental entities have agreed to take in additional children, and the county will pay them $125 per child per day. Girls and Boys Town has accepted 10 additional children, Reilly said, and St. Jude's Ranch for Children plans to take in an additional 16 referrals within 30 days.

Focus Property Group and Landtek's expansion of the Howard Cottage will make room for 30 more children at Child Haven. Everything from the planning to the construction is being donated under the umbrella of what's been dubbed Project Mended Hearts.

"Our intent is to gut the building, add 1,000 square feet and make it a home," said Roger Friend, a Landtek employee who coordinated the Mended Hearts campaign, which began last year.

Friend said Mended Hearts originally set out to build an activity course where Child Haven kids could play. Once his team saw the need for housing, they shifted gears and started planning the cottage project. Six-figure donations from the Hagar Marketing Group, Focus Property Group and The Children's Service Guild provided the funding.

Friend said he was proud of being able to make a difference, even though the current crisis requires so much more than one cottage.

"I feel like we're not even denting the problem," he said.

Reilly and Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid also asked that families open their homes to children in need of short-term shelter.

Reilly said he has asked the Department of Family Services to stop licensing people who are only interested in adoption and shift the focus to licensing of individuals willing to be short-term foster parents.

"The bulk of kids we receive are kids that are not legally free (for adoption), and we need family foster homes that will take these children," Reilly said.

A recruitment campaign for foster and adoptive families launched by the county in May 2005 obtained an additional 200 foster homes; but of those, 75 percent were only interested in taking children who could be adopted, Reilly said.

He said 110 children need foster homes.

"Mended Hearts and the donors have stepped up to the plate to show us how the private nonprofit sector can contribute and really make a difference," Reilly said. "Now we ask that citizens of Clark County consider being foster parents so that children can be safe at all times."

The crisis at Child Haven has attracted the attention of advocacy groups alarmed by what's happening to children placed in institutional care.

Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the Nevada ACLU, said it is not in the best interests of the child to be placed indefinitely at a hospital or a temporary shelter.

"Everyone agrees, and the research shows, that babies should not be left in institutional care," Lichtenstein said. "The county has not developed a proper foster care system."

Lichtenstein said he has met with representatives of the Youth Law Center in San Francisco and the National Youth Law Center in Oakland about the Child Haven crisis. The next step is to take their concerns and their documentation of research to county officials.

Longtime child advocate Donna Coleman said the Child Haven crisis has been brewing for years. "I've been complaining about overcrowding at Child Haven for at least two years," Coleman said.

She said county officials need to look past stop-gap measures that place a handful of children in different places.

"They need to build another Southern Nevada children's home," Coleman said. "After they closed the one in Boulder City, the community never recovered."

Assistant County Manager Darryl Martin said Tom Morton, incoming director for family services, will be responsible for establishing a strategic plan to address the Child Haven crisis. Morton is expected to begin work in July.

Martin said, "If we don't do anything in terms of long-term, in another year, we'll be in crisis again. ... We are looking at renovating Child Haven so that it will be more up to date."