The boarded-up Dayton house where police found five boys living unsupervised was among the worst environments for children they'd encountered, court filings state.
The children had been staying on and off for weeks at the abandoned Delphos Avenue property before a property manager discovered them on Oct. 1, with officials describing the conditions as "unlivable," according to Montgomery County Juvenile Court records obtained by The Enquirer.
Their mother later told officials she was hospitalized for liver issues and believed her 15-year-old son was caring for the younger boys. He wasn't there when police arrived. The filings said the mother was "squatting" in the house, and neighbors reported seeing the boys alone most days.
Four of the children,
ages 8 to 13, were removed from their mother's care and placed into the temporary custody of Montgomery County Children's Services. A 4-year-old boy is living with a relative, police said.
Prosecutors approved misdemeanor child endangerment charges against the mother after determining no felony offenses had occurred. At the same time, authorities have cited the family's apparent struggles with housing instability and unemployment as factors in the case. The Enquirer isn't naming the mother.
"This sounds kind of just like a mother of many children is basically trying to do the best she can," Dayton police Lt. Eric Sheldon told reporters on Oct. 7. He added that the mother was out of work.
The case highlights the intersection of child welfare concerns and family homelessness, which advocates say is affecting a growing number of Ohio families. Families facing housing instability often cycle among relatives' homes, vehicles, shelters, vacant buildings and even wooded areas while trying to avoid drawing attention to their circumstances and risking separation from their children.
When reached by phone, the mother declined to comment but expressed displeasure over news coverage of the family's living situation. She said she remains in contact with all her kids. While the court found that she is "not able to adequately care for the children," it granted her limited supervised parenting time.
Court filings detail conditions at abandoned Dayton house
Police responding to a welfare check were met at the door by a then-12-year-old boy staying with his four younger siblings. The building lacked electricity and running water. According to court filings, there was no food except a bottle of mustard, some of which one of the children managed to get into his hair.
Officers described it as "the worst house [they] have ever seen children in." Trash and dirty clothes were strewn throughout the house; the toilet overflowed with feces; the building reeked of old urine and bugs were swarming inside, according to court documents. The children wore dirty clothing and had visible dirt buildup on their clothes and bodies.
The boys told police their mother was on the way. One child said they live in the house with their mother's partner. Although there was no food in the house, records state the children said they were brought fast food.
"It doesn't look like anyone should've been living there," Sheldon said.
Staff at Dayton Children's Hospital, where the children were taken for treatment, noted the boys were hungry. The caregivers there had to wear masks because the children's odor was so strong. Aside from bug bites, they showed no signs of serious injury or medical distress.
Advocate says homeless families 'stay hidden' to avoid losing custody
Court filings state the mother objected to children's services taking custody of her children.
Parents experiencing homelessness often go to great lengths to avoid attracting attention because they worry their children will be taken away, said Kevin Finn, president and CEO of the Cincinnati-based Strategies to End Homelessness.
"You don't see them because they go out of their way to stay hidden in a way that single individuals that are homeless don't feel the need to do," Finn said, adding that his organization identified 328 families sleeping in cars last year in Hamilton County.
"We're seeing more and more families that are having to resort to all sorts of not great situations just to have a place to sleep at night," he said.
In a single night in 2025, as many as 230,366 unhoused people nationwide were in families with children, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development data show. A third of Ohioans experiencing homelessness are people in families with kids.
Advocates say that a lack of affordable housing combined with rising costs of necessities has resulted in families losing their homes or teetering on the edge of being displaced, with their livelihoods threatened by an unexpected hospital bill or car breakdown.
"People do whatever they can to provide a good home for their kids," said Marcus Roth of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio. "Your options get withered down by poverty, basically."
Shelters offer temporary accommodations, but beds are limited and getting a spot isn't guaranteed. They can also be large and chaotic, Roth said, making people feel unsafe.
Homeless programs will work to get people out of shelters and into their own apartments. It used to take weeks to get out of a shelter and into housing, he said; now it takes months as fewer landlords are willing to take on such tenants.
Helping families keep their homes would ease the burden on an overtaxed child welfare system, Roth added.
"We pay for these problems one way or the other," he said. "We should just do the right thing and help people before these problems just grow out of hand."
Fate of most kids left in hands of juvenile court
The mother told authorities she believed her 15-year-old son was watching his younger brothers while she was hospitalized. Instead, he went to school, leaving the younger children unsupervised, according to Sheldon, the police lieutenant.
The family moved between the abandoned Delphos Avenue house and a relative's home, where the children could shower and get meals. Adults were not always present when the children stayed at the vacant property.
"The family as a whole kind of came and went," Sheldon said. "Sometimes adults were there, sometimes they weren't."
The mother told child services workers the family was not living in the house full time. She said they stayed there when the relative housing them had to leave early for work or when it was easier for the children to get to school.
After the children were removed, the mother gave a 911 operator the Delphos Avenue address as her residence. The children also told officials they'd been sleeping there for a few weeks. Sheldon said some of the kids may not have been enrolled in school, or didn't attend regularly.
Efforts to place the boys with relatives were largely unsuccessful. The father of three of the boys is currently in prison and isn't expected to be released until 2038. Court records didn't identify the other boys' father.
A 4-year-old was placed with a family member, and another child had already been living with relatives when police discovered the siblings at the house. The remaining five children, including the 15-year-old, will remain in county custody until they can be reunited with their mother, or the court approves a different living arrangement.
"We're trying to get stability for that family, get them a place that they can stay, hopefully get the kids back in school," Sheldon said, "make sure they're healthy and successful."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 5 boys found in 'unlivable' Ohio building highlights family homelessness issue
