Child care, housing issues are intertwined

In regard to the recent article [Jan. 16, Page 2, “Housing, child care rank among CT residents' top priorities for legislators. We're ‘struggling'”], it is true. Connecticut is grappling with joint child care and housing crises, but these are not siloed. Recognizing the intersection between them and the compounding impact on the lives of parents, educators, providers, businesses, and especially our state's children, is essential to crafting solutions.

Across the early education and care system, educators barely earn poverty-level wages despite parents hemorrhaging their paychecks to afford child care and providers allocating most of their budgets toward salaries. Educators are leaving the industry in waves, causing classrooms to close and wait lists to increase. At the center I lead, most teachers' largest financial burden is rent. Low salaries and a worsening housing crisis are leaving some educators homeless and others living in unsafe conditions.

At Friends Center for Children, we came up with a solution to supplement salaries by providing free teacher housing — removing teachers' largest expense without burdening our students' families through higher tuition costs. This model would be scalable for more teachers to benefit if the public sector invested in buying or building teacher housing to allow educators to build savings, feed and house their families in safe environments, and dedicate more time to the classroom.

Though the Blue Ribbon Panel on Child Care's recommendations for the state's child care system represent a step forward, the plan lacks the urgency essential to effectively address this crisis. At the current rate of change, educators will continue to experience financial and housing insecurity, and Connecticut's early education system will remain inequitable.

Allyx Schiavone

The writer is executive director of Friends Center for Children in New Haven