[HPN] Child care short for 1 in 4 homeless families - King Co. WA report FWD report FWD

[Tom Boland]

http://www.seattlep-i.com/local/kids16.shtml
FWD  Seattle Post-Intelligencer / Wednesday, February 16, 2000
     [Washington state, USA]

DAY CARE SHORTAGE SHARPENS PLIGHT OF HOMELESS, REPORT SAYS

By HEATH FOSTER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

For a homeless mother, there is little more important than finding a
compassionate day care provider who can watch over her children while she
pounds the pavement in search of a job and housing.

But according to a study released yesterday, about one in four homeless
families in King County cannot find the child care when they most need it.

Because most shelters for the homeless won't let parents watch one
another's children, that means the parents have to cancel job interviews or
drag the children along as they search by bus for a cheap apartment.

Some parents drop plans to enter a training program that would give them
the skills to land a job paying more than minimum wage. And some mothers
end up returning to the domestic violence situations they fled in the first
place.

"A lot of times, without child care, these families just fall through the
cracks," said Karen, a formerly homeless mother who helped research the
report for King County and Seattle.

The 27-year-old administrative assistant became homeless when she left an
abusive partner. She asked that her last name not be used.

On any given night in King County, about 860 children under 12 are homeless.

The report was based on the experiences of 32 homeless families and did not
document how many of those children cannot find care. But its findings are
in keeping with a 1999 assessment by the non-profit agency Child Care
Resources, which found that child care of any sort is difficult to find.

The 1999 study found that the county is about 33,000 slots short of meeting
the needs of 83,000 children who are in the market for licensed child care.
There are about 50,000 children in licensed care in King County.

Karen and the other seven formerly homeless parents who worked on the new
report came up with several recommendations for improving the child-care
system, including a call for increased financing.

The report comes at a time when Seattle and King County are already $4.8
million short of what is needed to keep going for the next two years dozens
of community-based programs that serve homeless people.

The county learned late last year that the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development had denied the region money for programs that help keep
homeless families permanently off the streets by providing health care, job
training, child care and help in finding accommodation.

Yesterday, King County Executive Ron Sims said that if HUD doesn't
reconsider its decision, local officials will be hard pressed to make the
improvements the new report urges. The county and city have appealed on the
grounds that the grant-awarding process gave unfair advantage to some
cities.

Sims said the region applied for just two years of renewal financing for
homeless programs on the advice of regional HUD officials who were left in
the dark by agency leaders in Washington, D.C. He said other cities were
given inside information that they would get larger grants if they applied
for three years' money.

Top HUD officials have denied any wrongdoing and said they made it clear to
local officials that they were better off applying for three years' money.
But several other cities, including San Francisco and Chicago, have also
complained about the process, and HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo has agreed to
review it.

Sims said yesterday he hopes to meet Cuomo this month to plead the region's
case. Meanwhile, he pledged to work with the state Department of Social and
Health Services and United Way to see if some of the report's
recommendations can be put into place. They include:

   * A one-stop hot line, office and Internet site where homeless and
low-income people can find out what child-care resources are available.
Many homeless families in the study said they would spend the day
fruitlessly calling day cares only to be referred to places they had
already learned were full.

   * Increased child-care accessibility, which would include more
sliding-scale child-care payments, development of on-site child care at
public schools and homeless shelters, and greater transportation subsidies
to help get children to care.

   * Extended child-care subsidies for formerly homeless parents who have
landed jobs and apartments but can't afford child care on their own.

END FORWARD

**In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only.**

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