Childcare Providers Warn Of Existential” Crisis

Paul Bass Photo

Childcare organizer Georgia Goldburn: Covid-19 could kill up to half the centers.

If child care centers stay closed to slow the spread of Covid-19, one-fifth to one-half may never reopen.

Georgia Goldburn offered this dire forecast on Wednesday evening as she asked for local support for the nonprofit providers association she cofounded, Cercle.

In particular, she was hoping the crisis would prompt the Board of Alders to allocate the organization a larger share of federal Community Development Block Grant (CBDG) dollars than originally planned.

Goldburn said that 1,700 childcare providers closed down from 2016 to 2018, often because of financial losses. She said that her team conducted a survey of early childhood education centers and found that 20 to 50 percent think they will have to close permanently because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Goldburn worried that this would particularly impact children of color.

That is not being hyperbolic. We are facing an existential crisis right now,” Goldburn said.

Cercle hopes to use CDBG dollars to train and certify early childhood educators as well as pay for half of the salary of the executive director, Tamesha S. Robinson. The mayor’s proposal is to give the organization $25,000. Cercle is asking for at least another $17,000, given the circumstances.

The Board of Alders has a total of $8.2 million this year to divide up among city and social service organizations. Of that, $6.6 million comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through CDBG, Home Investment Partnership (HOME), Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA) and Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG).

Zoom

Wednesday was the alders’ first opportunity to get into the details of which departments and organizations were receiving which chunks of change. They did so over Zoom. The committee meeting was originally scheduled for March 12 but was postponed due to Covid-19 concerns.

Despite the new virtual format, the virus stayed out of most of the evening’s conversation as executive directors and department heads pitched their need for funds. Most of those testifying were happy with the amounts the mayor’s office has suggested to allocate to them, and there were few questions from the alders, who are now tasked with reviewing, revising, then approving those suggested allocations.

City government departments will likely walk away with the largest grants. The Livable City Initiative, for example, is slated to receive $1.4 million to convert the vacant former state welfare building at 188 Bassett St. into a worker-owned laundry, which would wash linens from large employers like Yale and the Yale New Haven Hospital.

The committee members focused on city and brick and mortar applications on Wednesday. The alders are scheduled to discuss another set of applications on April 1, also via Zoom.

Many applicants sought funding for affordable housing projects, like New Reach’s Portsea Place apartment complex for formerly homeless youths. Some, like Cornell Scott-Hill Health’s Shawn Galligan, asked for money for improvements in existing spaces. Galligan said that Cornell Scott wants to upgrade its lights to LEDs and that current lights, which buzz and flash, have caused a fire and a seizure.

Collab co-founder Caroline Smith.

The alders covered economic development applications on Wednesday as well. That category included Cercle and the small and minority business accelerator Collab.

Collab co-founders Caroline Smith and Margaret Lee asked for local support to allow more entrepreneurs into their program. The CDBG dollars would support all the wraparound services for three cohorts of students, including childcare, transportation and interpretation services. Smith and Lee would bring on a third staff member to help run this larger operation using $8,000 of the $20,000 requested.

One longtime affordable housing builder, Beulah Land Development Corporation, received none of $75,000 dollars requested for a project in Ward 28. Beulah focuses on homebuyers who would be unable to purchase without help.

Ward 28 Alder Jill Marks said that she has seen the impact of Beulah’s work on Orchard Street.

I remember when those went up in the 1980s. The people are still there and they’re thriving. I’m hoping that we can help the pastor continue doing this,” Marks said.

The Board of Alders is scheduled to vote to approve or rearrange these grant amounts on April 14.

Emily Hays Photo

Spring arrives near Gateway.

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