On Jan. 23, 2021, at a group home in Orange County, a single staff member was watching over six girls.
The facility – which is one of four run by New Alternatives in San Diego and Orange counties – was shorter staffed than usual and the staff member would have to clean, as well as supervise the kids, the staff member said.
“Confidential interviews confirmed that [the staff member] had set up movie night for the residents and was busy cleaning and therefore [the staff member’s] attention was not fully on what the residents were doing,” a state report reads.
Meanwhile, one of the girls had asked someone to stash drugs in the bushes outside the facility. At some point, an adult dropped off 10 Xanax bars – a powerful form of benzodiazepine.
“[The girl] was able to remove [her] bedroom screen, climb out of the bedroom, retrieve the Xanax left by [the adult] from the bushes, and return to [her] room, at which point [she] and [another girl] were able to consume 3 tablets,” the report reads.
When the staff member did check on the girls, they found one “walking funny” and the other “unresponsive,” according to the report. Both had to be taken to the emergency room.
State investigators issued New Alternatives a Type A citation, meaning investigators discovered an “immediate risk” to health, safety or personal rights.
But that Orange County citation is just one of dozens New Alternatives has racked up since 2019 at its two San Diego County and two Orange County facilities. New Alternatives has received 18 Type A citations and 20 Type B citations, which are for potential risks to safety or personal rights, according to state records. Several of those citations have been for not providing adequate supervision for some of Southern California’s most vulnerable children.
While the citations piled up, New Alternatives, which is a charity, has been parking millions of dollars in a Montana foundation, as Voice of San Diego reported last week. The foundation does almost nothing – except pay New Alternatives’ CEO Michael Bruich. In recent years, New Alternatives has received 98 percent of its funding from taxpayers, according to its own audits.
New Alternatives, through its lawyer, maintained that staffing at its facilities met or exceeded state standards during the incidents when state officials cited its facilities for violations.
“Every program has complete discretion to increase staffing levels as needed. These are individual program decisions and not agency decisions,” wrote John Clifford. “Program Directors and supervisors are always authorized to increase staffing as required.”
To suggest that New Alternatives staffing levels might be tied to the millions of dollars it is parking in its foundation “is not in any way accurate and is simply wrong,” Clifford wrote.
He previously told Voice there is nothing unusual about New Alternatives large transfers of cash to MAC Foundation in Montana.
“Practically all large, complex nonprofit organizations form foundations to provide for the protection of assets and the prudent management of those assets for the long-term support of charitable programs,” Clifford wrote.
Jessica Heldman is a law professor at the University of San Diego and part of the Children’s Advocacy Institute, which litigates and advocates on behalf foster youth.
“It is absolutely unacceptable for children to experience assault, drug overdoses, and theft while living apart from their families in a facility that is supposed to provide them with therapeutic care,” Heldman wrote in an email. “The counties and the state need to take a good hard look at how [New Alternatives] is operating, especially in light of questions raised about whether funds are being diverted away from serving the kids.”
Modern-day group homes, like those operated by New Alternatives, are different than group homes of previous years, which California has attempted to phase out. Today’s facilities are referred to as Short-Term Residential Therapeutic Programs. They are designed to be less like a warehouse for children and offer more intensive mental health treatment. Children are only meant to stay at them on a short-term basis.
The citations New Alternatives has received at its facilities over the years range in severity.
In 2022, at one of New Alternatives San Diego facilities, state officials investigated an incident where one child beat another foster child so badly, that the child had to get five staples in their head.
“The facility knew that [child #2] had a trend of hurting clients and had escalating behaviors, yet [child #2’s] supervision was not increased nor did the facility provide extra supervision to the other clients to keep them safe,” investigators wrote. They cited New Alternatives with a Type A violation for not providing adequate supervision. New Alternatives agreed to increase supervision as needed in the future, the report noted.
In 2024, at the same facility, investigators cited New Alternatives for a staff member using a bear hug on a child. Bear hugs go against Pro-Act restraint and de-escalation techniques, a form of training that aligns with California’s standards, investigators noted.
“All staff are trained and certified in Pro Act,” Clifford wrote. “Pro Act training gives staff discretion on how and when to intervene in physical confrontations. Avoidance of physical intervention is most often the appropriate course.”
In another instance, investigators found workers at the facility did not have criminal background checks on file.
All workers had actually been criminally background checked, Clifford wrote. “The paperwork had not made it into the personnel files at the time of inspection,” his email reads.
In another, investigators cited New Alternatives for having expired food and spoiled vegetables in the children’s refrigerator.
“The ‘expired’ food[s] were bruised tomatoes,” Clifford wrote.
New Alternatives, Inc. #16 is a facility in Chula Vista run by New Alternatives. It has had more allegations against it than any other group home in San Diego except for one, according to state records.
Most allegations end with no citation at all. In many cases, investigators do not investigate claims until months after an alleged incident took place. And evidence can be hard to come by, especially in cases that involved no eye witnesses.
Most unsubstantiated claims come with a note from state investigators: “The allegation may have happened or is valid, but there is not a preponderance of the evidence to prove that the alleged violation occurred.”
In one complaint from 2019 at one of the Orange County facilities, someone alleged that a staff member forced a child to touch their genitals. Later, when investigators attempted to interview the child, they refused to provide a statement and the allegation was marked unsubstantiated. (Clifford did not comment on the alleged incident.)
New Alternatives #16 has three Type A citations and 13 Type B citations, according to state records.
During one visit, investigators issued four Type B citations.
An official “observed the carpeting was dirty, ripped and stained throughout; paint was peeling on walls, doors and ceilings throughout facility; there were holes in the ceiling, window sills and walls in most rooms; graffiti was present in nine of thirteen bedrooms on walls, cabinets, windows and shelves as well as in common areas,” the report reads.
During the same visit, an official cited New Alternatives for not having a facility manager designated to cover the facility over a roughly 36-hour period each week between Saturdays and Mondays.
In a separate case, a child gave a gift card to a staff member for safekeeping. The child alleged that the staff member had stolen money off of the gift card. Investigators cited New Alternatives #16 because no gift card had ever been logged into inventory for safekeeping by the staff member.
Clifford did not comment on citations at New Alternatives #16.
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I spent a lot of time in new alternatives 6 15 and 16 back in the 90s. They didn’t supply an adequate amount of food. I spent most of my time AWOL. I can’t believe they still exist.
I was in a New Alternatives group home in Spring Valley CA and bullied by almost every other kid there because there was no supervision. Beat up, fondled, someone threw up in my bed and remade it. After experiencing so much of it I snapped and kicked out a window. Which resulted in me going to the hospital to get stitches in my leg. I was to scared too speak up for myself because the counselors played favorites and I wasn’t one of them. This was late 80s to early 90s. They were horrible and should be shut down.