#childcare-affordability

#childcare-affordability

Melinda Turner starts her day at 3:30 a.m., and within 30 minutes, wakes her 8-year-old daughter for school. She packs their bags and by 5 a.m., heads out to drop her child at an in-home day care - one of the few providers in her area that opens before dawn. Turner, a single mother, then drives to her early shift at a manufacturing job.

The city's child care landscape is notoriously complex and expensive, with a range of private, home-based, center-based and public options. According to a report from the 5 Boro Institute last year, 80% of families struggle to cover the costs of full-time care, while providers labor under "razor-thin" margins that have pushed some out of business. Policy makers and advocates say child care is a central piece of the affordability crisis driving families out of the city, threatening to destabilize the tax base and the public school system.