As a family law attorney, Julie Ketterman has worked countless cases in which Child Protective Services took children away from parents for reasons that range from a family using an outhouse instead of indoor plumbing to keeping clothes in boxes instead of dressers.
Ketterman said CPS caseworkers deem those instances as unsafe and cramped living conditions, which is grounds for removal by the agency's standards.
"But to me, they are being picked up because they are poor," she said.
Legally, CPS cannot cite poverty as a reason to remove children from parental custody.
"But do they do it? Absolutely, all the time," said Ketterman, who has worked as a defense attorney in CPS cases in Houston for more than five years.
The case of Prince and Charlomane Leonard and their children is similar to many Ketterman said she has handled. Last month, CPS removed the couple's six children after agency caseworkers said that the small storage shed in east Houston the family was staying in contained unsafe living conditions.
The family lived inside the 12-by-25-foot shed for nearly four years, outfitting it with a wood-burning heater, AC unit and compost toilet while fetching water from a nearby spigot.
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