OMAHA, Neb. -- Grace Cottage in Papillion, Neb., will close down Friday due to budget issues.

The owners notified the group home’s staff and residents last week.

One owner said he had to write personal checks for tens of thousands of dollars just to keep the program afloat.

The closure means that the at-risk girls who live there will have to be sent somewhere else.

KETV talked with some of the girls who voluntarily walked off-property so they could explain how they feel about the closure. KETV didn’t ask for the girl’s names because they’re wards of the state.

"When you got to go a group home, you have no choice but to be here and do what you got to do to leave and go back home, and we all got used to each other like we said, and now we gotta start all over,” one girl said.

Grace Cottage has been a home away from home for the girls for more than five years.

"We kind of refer to them as not in a good enough situation to be at home, but not bad enough to be in jail," Grace Cottage President Pat Sullivan said.

Currently, eight girls live at the home.

"I saw some wonderful things happen with girls after about six-to-eight weeks where they really made a change, felt like we were really doing something for the community,” Sullivan said.

The problem for the home’s owners, was that the cost of living has gone up while the amount of money the state can give them per girl has not.

Nebraska Health and Human Services said they don’t expect to have any problems in getting the girls to other child-caring agencies.

Sullivan said another problem is they don't have as many girls to take care of, and that means less state funding for them.

Health and Human Services said that there’s been a push in the last few years to keep kids with their parents or relatives if possible, rather than in group homes.

The staff and residents weren’t give a 30 day notice because of fears that the staff would have left over that time and the home wouldn’t be able to maintain its standard of care.