MILWAUKEE — Just as early childhood education centers are the foundational building blocks for our children, two Milwaukee organizations believe it's just as important that their teachers have a strong foundation at home.
Community Development Alliance (CDA) and Milwaukee Local Initiatives Support Corporation are working to provide affordable housing for childhood educators across the city. They plan to build 50 houses, with the first being completed by the end of 2024.
The plans for the houses are based on Habitat for Humanity models and will have three bedrooms, one bath, and a basement. They'll be built on city-owned vacant lots.
CDA and LISC have also teamed up with five Milwaukee childcare centers including Next Door Foundation Early Childhood Education, Children’s Outing Association Early Education Center, Malaika Early Learning Center, Ricardo Diaz Early Learning Academy, and Growing Tree Children’s Center.
Each center will see 10 houses built within walking distance.
Laura Gutierrez, United Community Center (UCC) Chief Executive Officer, is hopeful the program will help keep teachers in the profession.
"They love what they do, it's a passion, it truly is a servant leader calling," Gutierrez said about the teachers at UCC's Ricardo Diaz Early Learning Academy. "For us, if we can help teachers stay in that position by removing some of these barriers and giving them a stable home to live right in their community where they might not need a car and could walk to school, where they don't have to worry about childcare, it just makes everything much more beneficial for everyone in the community."
Teig Whaley-Smith with CDA pointed to the nearly 200 childcare centers closing during the pandemic as a reason for focusing on childhood educators.
"When asked why they weren't coming back to the industry, it was because they weren't making enough money to pay for their housing costs," Whaley-Smith explained. "Our entire quality of life is based on people being able to get to work and having a place to send your kids."
Theo Lipscomb with LISC said the impact of these houses will go far beyond the teachers who end up living in them.
"If childcare capacity isn't there, then people can't return to work. So it really is a workforce issue," Lipscomb said.
He expects the initiative will be duplicated in other ways moving forward.
For Gutierrez, it all comes back to building strong communities.
"This is a wonderful program and hopefully this will help early childhood educators throughout our city realize that we are here to partner with them and make sure that they can continue to serve our children but that we also care about serving them to keep them in the workforce," Gutierrez said.
For more information on the program, visit housingplan.org.
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