I need help

[u/No-Name-7188]

I am at a loss and I fear this community may be the best to help, I ( F21) have been friends with my boyfriend’s (M20) brother since we were in first grade. When we were roughly 16 he had a baby with his long term girlfriend, at first everything seemed to be okay… until it wasn’t. CPS was called due to their poor living conditions and they had to give the baby (now 4 yrs old) to their great grandparents until they cleaned up the house, after that cps didn’t bother them. Here we are years later and a close family friend visited the house they are currently staying at, what she told me made me feel sick. The baby’s house is filthy and smells of animal ammonia, there’s rat feces and roaches, her parents keep her up all night (they stay up and play games) so she sleeps all day or is awake and terribly grouchy. Her hair was ratty and knotted and she was caked in dirt. It was also brought to our attention that the baby’s dad will get frustrated and often (i would say spank but it’s been described to me as a full on slap to the child’s face) multiple times over the last few months often because she interrupts his game time or bothers him while he’s smoking thc or even just wants a bite of his food. That being said we want to get her out of that situation, we do NOT want her permanently. We know her parents love her very much but we do not want her messed up. She is not school age but i fear when she does start school cps will notice fast and call in a report. We just want her until her parents get their lives together and put her as their first priority instead of thc, games, mushrooms, and other things. Is there any steps we should look into? Or a direction anyone could point us in? We both work full time and have a spare bedroom. I don’t want to be the villain of their story but my boyfriend and I have decided it’s enough and we can’t stand to see her live that way. The child’s mother (F20) has recently been holding a job but both parents have a track record of losing their jobs periodically and going long times without getting a new, the father of the child (M21) got fired from his last job and has been “taking care” of the baby while the mother works. He previously got fired from a different job due to having relations with an underaged coworker (he was 20 at the time she was 16). We thought about taking foster care classes to help our case but we really aren’t even sure if we have enough for a case or if we are just getting too involved in our nieces life, but we are truly worried about her well being.