Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Vaccine Info
  • Money
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Vaccine Info
    Money
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism
CT VIEWPOINTS -- opinions from around Connecticut

Expediting childcare for homeless kids is right for all of us

  • CT Viewpoints
  • by Carla Miklos, Lena Rodriguez and Kellyann Day.
  • March 3, 2016
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

Over 1,000 families and more than 2,000 children were homeless in Connecticut over the course of 2015.  Nearly half of these children were under 5.  Seventy percent of these families live in Fairfield, Hartford, and New Haven Counties – where our three organizations provide shelter, housing, and support services in an effort to end family homelessness.

Family homelessness is a stressful and traumatic experience – especially for the young minds of children.  Research increasingly indicates that homelessness can have a detrimental impact on children’s development and ability to learn and thrive.

This creates damage in these young lives, and forces additional costs on our communities:  homeless children are more likely than their peers to access medical care via emergency rooms, to require special services in schools, and to need similar, costly supports.  In short – we save public funds when we help these families exit homelessness more quickly.

It is best for the health of these families — particularly for their children — and less costly for our communities to resolve family homelessness quickly by helping these families stabilize their lives.  To do so requires streamlining access to quality childcare for these children to help them through a difficult period, while freeing their parents to find work or sign up for needed employment training, and secure permanent housing as quickly as possible.

Gov. Dannel Malloy has proposed legislation (S.B. 10, an Act Increasing Access to Childcare for Children who are Homeless) to create immediate eligibility for childcare subsidies for these families.  This would remove an important barrier that now stands in the way for homeless families to access needed childcare. Removing this barrier would create an environment that supports struggling parents in their effort to break the cycle of homelessness and obtain employment, so that they can take care of their families and experience stability.

It’s important to note that most of the families experiencing homelessness are unable to access the state childcare subsidy known as “Care 4 Kids,” immediately, but will eventually be eligible for this assistance.  But this can only occur only after the parents meet the required conditions of being employed or enrolled in job training.

These current Care 4 Kids requirements create a Catch-22 for those facing homelessness:  Families often become homeless due to the loss of a job, and the unpredictability of being homelessness makes it nearly impossible for a parent to secure new employment or participate in job training.

Shelters and other service providers struggle to patch together the emergency resources that might enable parents to secure childcare so that they can get a job or gain employable skills – and then meet the Care 4 Kids requirements to obtain the childcare subsidy that they desperately need.

Resolving this Catch-22 is critical if we are to help these families get back on their feet and housed quickly.  Stabilizing these families helps relieve the unnecessary costs their homelessness will impose on our communities.  That is why six other states (Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Washington) created priority eligibility for childcare subsidies based on homelessness.

This targeting can help to level the playing field for families who are systematically disadvantaged from obtaining the resources they need due to the nature and severity of their circumstances. These families’ needs may become more complex and expensive while their homelessness persists.  This raises the costs of this problem to taxpayers and communities.  Expediting access to childcare for these particularly vulnerable families is the right thing to do – for these families, for these children, and for our communities.  Creating streamlined access to childcare subsidies for this population has a high return on investment:  impacting young lives to the good, while saving precious public dollars.

Carla Miklos is Executive Director, Operation Hope and Chair of the Board, CT Coalition to End Homelessness. 

Lena Rodriguez is President and Chief Executive Officer, Community Renewal Team.

Kellyann Day, Chief Executive Officer, New Reach.

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
Biden is right to think big on infrastructure
by Jim Cameron

Hurrah! It was finally “infrastructure week” in Washington. In his first 100 days as President, Joe Biden has delivered a plan that his predecessor just kept teasing us with for four years:  a complete rehabilitation and expansion of the nation’s infrastructure.

My life and every other Black life matters
by Eugene Bertrand

"My life and every other black life matters." This is every black person's motto in the United States of America. In the past few months, we've seen an increase in deaths among the Black community.

Send us the children
by Kellin Atherton

Send us the children, President Biden. Send us the children, Governor Lamont. But not just the children. Move heaven and earth to find their families. Find mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins. Children are coming here alone. Find someone to ease their loneliness and bring them too.

Lobbyist uses seniors and people with disabilities to protect drug company profits
by Ellen M. Andrews

Reading William Smith’s opinion (Connecticut must protect vulnerable populations from biased and discriminatory healthcare practices, April 13, 2021), I was worried that my state had passed draconian laws that were harming the health of seniors and people with disabilities. Thankfully, that isn’t the case. Our anti-discrimination laws are still in place and functioning.

Redistricting in Connecticut 2021: It is worth your attention
by Patricia Rossi

This is the year for redistricting in the United States. Maps drawn in 2021 will define which voters can vote for which candidates for the next ten years.  That means ensuring that the 2021 maps are fair and representative of their communities is critically important.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion Biden is right to think big on infrastructure
by Jim Cameron

Hurrah! It was finally “infrastructure week” in Washington. In his first 100 days as President, Joe Biden has delivered a plan that his predecessor just kept teasing us with for four years:  a complete rehabilitation and expansion of the nation’s infrastructure.

Opinion My life and every other Black life matters
by Eugene Bertrand

"My life and every other black life matters." This is every black person's motto in the United States of America. In the past few months, we've seen an increase in deaths among the Black community.

Opinion Send us the children
by Kellin Atherton

Send us the children, President Biden. Send us the children, Governor Lamont. But not just the children. Move heaven and earth to find their families. Find mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins. Children are coming here alone. Find someone to ease their loneliness and bring them too.

Opinion Lobbyist uses seniors and people with disabilities to protect drug company profits
by Ellen M. Andrews

Reading William Smith’s opinion (Connecticut must protect vulnerable populations from biased and discriminatory healthcare practices, April 13, 2021), I was worried that my state had passed draconian laws that were harming the health of seniors and people with disabilities. Thankfully, that isn’t the case. Our anti-discrimination laws are still in place and functioning.

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO