Nevada’s housing crisis is colliding with its child care crisis

YIn his State of the State address, Gov. Joe Lombardo lauded Nevada for being pro-business and entrepreneur-friendly. He promised to focus on families and to create more job opportunities for Nevadans. He and other state leaders can do both by making family child care homes a priority.

ou probably know someone who is struggling to find child care. I say this with confidence, because 72% of Nevadans live in a child care desert. That means that for every available child care slot there are three or more children vying for it.

Welcome to the child care crisis, which persists in the state even though there is a solution within reach that could help ease the crunch: family child care homes, a licensed and regulated small-business model that allows an early-childhood professional to care for small groups of children in their home. It’s more affordable for parents, the group size is much smaller, and the hours of care provided are more flexible than in a child care center. We should all have family child care homes in our neighborhoods.

Unfortunately, this vital solution is barely on the state’s radar, much less its priority list. In his State of the State address, Gov. Joe Lombardo lauded Nevada for being pro-business and entrepreneur-friendly. He promised to focus on families and to create more job opportunities for Nevadans. He and other state leaders can do both by making family child care homes a priority.

I manage the Child Care Services Center, a resource hub based in Reno for child care providers in the state. We provide technical assistance, business support and networking to all types of child care providers, including entrepreneurial family child care home providers. Their single largest barrier to opening a business is discrimination from the housing industry.

To open a family child care home in Nevada, one needs a business plan, startup money and a house. Those first two can be obtained independently. But when it comes to who gets a house, and who gets to run their business from it, landlords and HOAS are the gatekeepers, and their refusal to allow family child care homes into communities is making the child care crisis worse.

Take for example Anitra Lott, who cares for a few children in her community. During the pandemic, Lott found that more and more families needed her. Opening an in-home child care business was her way of answering the call. So she took business training, built up her credit score, got approved for a loan and started looking for a house.

Unfortunately, HOAS turned her away from every house she applied to rent as soon as they learned she was planning to care for children. Even when Lott looked to buy instead of rent, homeowners would not sell to her for the same reason. Eventually all the rejected applications caused her credit score to tank, and she lost her loan approval.

Or take Destinee Hodges, a child care center director with a dream of working for herself in her chosen profession. Hodges started working with a real estate agent to find a home to rent, but quickly found that he was not willing to represent her as a client, because no one would rent to her. Hodges provided information about the licensing regulations, business requirements and structure of family child care homes, but he refused all information she presented.

HOAS say they don’t want excess traffic and noise in the neighborhood. Landlords say they don’t want the liability of injuries or the wear and tear to the home. These are valid concerns. But has any HOA or landlord ever taken the time to listen to the response?

Licensed child care is one of the most heavily regulated small businesses in America. Not only are family child care homeowners required to have a business license, but they are also required to hold liability insurance and to comply with health, safety and sanitation inspections. Who else has a home that is regularly inspected by the fire department?

Family child care providers are limited to caring for six children, including their own if they have any, which usually means they are serving about 2-3 families. The impact on neighborhoods and homes is minor. The impact on our communities when child care can’t be found is enormous.

Family child care stands to significantly benefit working families and children in Nevada, but as it stands, this small business is at the mercy of landlords and HOAS. It does not have to stay that way. It can and should be protected by law.

Lombardo said the Nevada way is to never stop dreaming, but who gets to see their dreams fulfilled? Is it working families? Is it women of color in small business? Without laws to protect family child care homes, dreams are all some people will have, and dreams alone are not good enough.