> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.rescueconsole.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Foster homes
> The foster roster: each home's capacity, offering an animal, starting and ending a placement, and how a foster home relates to a person.
A foster home is a person who takes animals into their own home, with how many they can take and what kinds of animal they will have. **Foster homes** lists them all with where there is room; each home has a page for offering animals and recording who has stayed. Open it from the search palette by typing "Foster homes" (see [Finding your way](/getting-started/finding-your-way)).
Anyone who can **See** Animals can read the list and the pages. Adding a home, changing it, and offering or placing animals need **Change** on Animals.
## Foster homes and people
Every foster home belongs to one person in [People](/people/list), and a person can have only one foster home. Making someone a foster home also gives their person record the **Foster** role.
On the person's record, the **Roles** tab has a **Fostering** card showing the home's status, how many of its spaces are filled, what it takes, and **Open the foster home**. A person marked as a foster with no home set up reads "Marked as a foster, but no foster home has been set up yet."
The home's own page links back to the person under **Contact**, with their phone number.
## The numbers at the top
| Number | What it counts |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Active homes** | Homes that are **Active**, with the total number of homes under it. |
| **Spots filled** | Animals placed, out of every active home's capacity added together. |
| **Spots free** | Places still open in active homes. |
| **Utilization** | Spots filled as a share of capacity. |
| **Average stay** | The average length of a finished placement, in days, and how many placements that is over. |
## The list
| Column | What it shows |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Foster** | The person's name and email. |
| **Animals** | Animals placed, of the home's capacity: "2 of 3". A home over capacity says so in amber. |
| **Free** | Spots free. |
| **Takes** | The species the home takes (or **Any species**), and whether it takes medical cases, bottle babies and behavioral cases. |
| **Status** | **Active**, **Paused** or **Inactive**. |
**Columns** chooses which columns show; **Foster** is always shown. Press a row to open the home.
The filters beside the list are **Status**, and **Room**, whose one choice, **Has space**, keeps the active homes with a spot free. **Views** saves the filters you use most.
## Adding a foster home
A form opens above the list.
Pick them under **Foster**. They must already be in People.
**How many animals can they take?** is required, at least 1. You can change it any time.
The new home's page opens.
What the home will take is set on its page.
## The foster home page
The band at the top shows the home's animals against its capacity ("1 of 2 animals"), with how many spots are free, **Over capacity**, or, for a home that is not active, "Paused: not taking animals right now".
* **Change capacity** sets how many animals the home can take, at least 1. It can be set lower than the animals already there; the home then reads over capacity until one leaves.
* The status menu beside it sets the home **Active**, **Paused** or **Inactive**. A paused or inactive home keeps its capacity but has no free spots and cannot be offered animals.
**Takes** lists the species the home takes (or **Any**) and has three boxes: **Medical needs**, **Bottle babies** and **Behavioral cases**. Ticking one saves it.
**Currently here** lists the animals offered to the home or placed with it. **History** lists placements that have finished, with how they ended and how many days they lasted, and offers that were declined.
## Offering an animal
A placement starts as an offer. The home has to say yes before the animal takes a spot.
On an **Active** home's page, choose the animal under **Offer an animal** (**Which animal?**). It appears under **Currently here** as **Offered**, with the date.
* An offer does not take a spot, so a home can be offered more animals than it has room for.
* An animal can have only one offer or placement at a time. Offering it while it has one is refused, with a message saying which it has.
## Starting a placement
When the home says yes, press **Confirm** on the animal's row. It becomes **In foster**, dated today.
If the home is already full, confirming stops and says how many of its spots are taken. Press **Place anyway** to place the animal over capacity.
When a placement starts:
* the foster appears on the animal's **Relationships** tab;
* the animal appears on the home's card on the [Housing board](/animals/housing#foster-homes-on-the-board);
* a [workflow](/settings/workflows) your rescue has set to start "when they start fostering an animal" starts on the foster's person record.
Confirming does not change the animal's status or its **Location**. Change those on the [animal record](/animals/record) if your rescue uses them for fostering.
If the home says no, press **Declined**. The offer moves to **History**.
## Ending a placement
When the animal leaves the home, press **Animal left** on its row, choose **Why did it end?**, and press **Complete**. The reasons are **Adopted**, **Returned to shelter**, **Transferred**, **Medical**, **Foster unavailable** and **Other**. The placement ends today, the spot is free again, and the foster's link on the animal's **Relationships** tab is closed.
A placement also ends by itself when the animal's status changes to one marked **Ends foster** under **Settings → Animal management → Animal statuses**. It is recorded as ended because of **Adopted** when the new status is Adopted, and **Other** otherwise. As your statuses come, every status ends a foster placement except **Waitlist**, **Pending Intake**, **Intake Processing**, **Foster - Available**, **Adoption Pending** and **Foster - Medical**.
The same happens when you set a status in [Bulk update](/animals/list#bulk-update) on the Animals list: each animal given a status marked **Ends foster** leaves its foster home.