3 Local Facilities To Get Polygamist Sect Children

HOUSTON -- Three Houston-area facilities will soon be temporary homes for dozens of children removed from the polygamist sect in west Texas, KPRC Local 2 reported Thursday.

Thirty-six children will live at Kidz Harbor in Liverpool, Texas, in Brazoria County.

"I think it's a place where the kids will feel safe," Liverpool Police Chief Myles Hopkins said. "They community will also embrace their arrival."

Officials at all of the facilities expecting children said they do not know when the children will arrive. The facilities have stocked up on fresh fruits and vegetables because the children do not eat meat or processed foods.

Up to 16 children could soon temporarily call a Hockley facility home.

There's an unassuming sign out front that reads "Boys and Girls Country." The driveway back to the foster care compound is a few miles off Highway 290, surrounded by fields.

"Our first priority is to welcome a child in a warm way," Executive Director Shirley Wright said.

The staff and volunteers have been getting ready, folding towels, putting backpacks by each empty bed and writing welcoming notes.

"If we know what their favorite food is, we'll be baking it in the oven," Wright said.

They have two empty cottages that are set up like large homes with common areas for everyone to hang out. There is one big dining table where the whole house shares a meal.

The children would be split into boys and girls and each home can take eight kids, with plenty of supervision.

"They live with a house parent couple and single house parent who raise them as their own," said Wright.

The children are expected to do chores and go to school, but there is an adjustment period.

"The first thing we do is figure out where each child is, what their values are," Wright said. "We don't think we're better, but we tell them we'll teach them a different way."

For the children coming from the Yearning for Zion compound, much will be different, including their new foster parents religion -- Christianity.

"We are a Christian organization," said Wright. "We have kids come from every faith perspective."

Wright said that when children arrive, they need something that transcends faith and culture.

They need to feel loved.

"You can't even imagine how scared these kids are when they are leaving what they've known," she said.

Wright would not say exactly how many children they are expecting or how soon they could arrive.

A facility in Porter, Texas, is also expecting some of the children.