Paris Pierce started working at nonprofit day care center Friends Center for Children in 2019. Since 2022, the school has provided her, and her children, rent-free housing.
“Before moving into this house, I had to use two of my paychecks to pay my rent,” Pierce said. “Without paying rent, it means that I get to save money, which I call a rainy day fund. My children get to participate in extracurricular activities. It gives me a better quality of life.”
Pierce said it also means she can show up to work and provide for the classroom as her best self.
“Without having to worry about how I make ends meet, I get to provide my children with what they need and have a little bit of extra money,” Pierce said.
Pierce is one of eight Friends Center teachers provided rent-free housing, along with eight teachers’ kids and siblings, according to Friends Center Executive Director Allyx Schiavone. Nationally, the average childcare provider earns about $30,000 a year, Schiavone said.
So, the Friends Center team is pushing to expand options for at-home day cares and ways to tackle both the affordability crises in both housing and child care.
“We're calling on public or private entities to purchase, renovate and offer rent free housing to providers committed to operating high quality home-based child care, and they would do that for a fixed period of time,” Schiavone said.
After the fixed period, home ownership would transfer to the child care provider.
By 2027, Friends Center plans to expand its teacher force to 80, providing free housing for 24 teachers.
Rent is a significant expense for any day care provider, according to Schiavone, whether at a specific facility or in the provider’s home. She said a large portion of Friends Center income goes toward rent.
“Friends Center currently owns two of our four sites, and we rent the other two,” Schiavone said. “We pay $90,000 in rent in one of our sites, and we have nine teachers. If we did not have to pay rent, we could pay those educators $10,000 more overnight.”
Another way to approach the issues is to see how housing and child care relate to one another, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro said.
“We often look at these programs as in silos, that we have a child care problem, housing problem … instead of looking at the interconnectedness of all of that,” DeLauro said.
Increasing pay for early childhood educator roles and programs like the child tax credit are other ways to address rising housing costs and the lack of quality, affordable child care, DeLauro said.
“It is really what the pay scale is. It's what the benefits are, if the folks who are at the lower end of the totem pole here, or their work is not valued, that is what it comes down to,” DeLauro said.
