Homeless Services United joined the Day Care Council of New York and Henry Street Settlement in a new City Limits op-ed examining one of the most overlooked barriers facing families in shelter: childcare that disappears just when they need it most.
A system built for a different era of work
New York’s childcare subsidy system was largely shaped by welfare rules from the 1990s. Subsidy programs funded through the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant, which includes the Child Care Assistance Program, often require six weeks of consistent pay stubs, a documentation standard that many gig and hourly jobs simply cannot provide. Meanwhile, Urban Institute data shows 43 percent of children nationwide have a parent working a nontraditional schedule, yet fewer than 10 percent of traditional child care centers operate during those hours.
For families in shelter, who are already navigating frequent moves and unstable income, the mismatch is not an inconvenience. It is often the difference between keeping a job and losing one.
“But often standing in their way are unmet childcare needs, which make it difficult for them to obtain and maintain permanent housing and hold full-time jobs, perpetuating a devastating cycle unlikely to change without major overhauls,” the authors write.
The scale of the problem
New York’s nightly shelter population averages around 80,000 people, many of them parents working toward stability. The op-ed argues that the tools to fix this already exist and simply haven’t been implemented at the scale families need.
Three commitments are already on the books:
Governor Hochul’s 2024 law directing presumptive eligibility for the Child Care Assistance Program is still being implemented statewide.
A City Council proposal for automatic enrollment in benefit programs, using data the city already has, has not yet been enacted.
A 2019 city commitment to pay parity between early childhood educators at community based organizations and their public school counterparts remains unfinished. A 2024 NYC Comptroller report found that 19 percent of full-time, certified lead teachers with master’s degrees at community based organizations earn less than the mandated minimum, a gap driven by public reimbursement rates that haven’t kept pace with city wages.
Proof that reform is possible
The authors point to the state’s new free child care program for 2-year-olds, announced by Governor Hochul and Mayor Mamdani and set to launch in fall 2026, as evidence that large scale reform is achievable when the political will exists. Their call to action is direct: implement presumptive eligibility without delay, pass the auto-enrollment law, streamline the path between families in shelter and open childcare seats, and finish the pay parity commitment made in 2019.
“The city has the power to break the cycle for families,” the authors write. “Use it boldly.”