WHEN HOUSING AND CHILD CARE MEET

WHEN HOUSING AND
CHILD CARE MEET
Lessons Learned from Seven Child Care and Community Development Partnerships
Authors
Diana A. Meyer
Elizabeth C. Smith
Toni B. Porter
Sabina Cardenas
Edited by Beth Williams Pryor

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The Enterprise Foundation is dedicated to rebuilding distressed neighborhoods and
helping people with low and very low incomes move into the mainstream of Ameri-
can life. Working with partners, Enterprise provides struggling families and individu-
als with access to affordable homes, jobs, quality child care and other avenues of
improving their life opportunities. The Enterprise Network includes 2,400 commu-
nity-based organizations, public housing authorities and Native American tribes in
860 locations.
Enterprise has raised and invested more than $4.4 billion in loans, grants and
equity to build or renovate 144,000 affordable homes. Jim and Patty Rouse
launched The Enterprise Foundation, a national nonprofit organization headquar-
tered in Columbia, Md., in 1982. We rely on contributions and support from indi-
vidual donors, corporations, foundations and the government to help rebuild Amer-
ica’s low-income communities.
Copyright © 2003 The Enterprise Foundation
ISBN: 0-942901-98-3
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
without written permission, except for brief quotations embodied in critical articles
and reviews.
Questions and comments regarding use of these materials should be sent to:
Diana A. Meyer
The Enterprise Foundation
10227 Wincopin Circle, Suite 500
Columbia, MD 21044
410.964.1230
www.enterprisefoundation.org

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WHEN HOUSING AND
CHILD CARE MEET
Lessons Learned from Seven Child Care
and Community Development Partnerships
Authors
Diana A. Meyer
Elizabeth C. Smith
Toni B. Porter
Sabina Cardenas
Edited by Beth Williams Pryor
April 2002

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Dedication
Madeline McCullough
When Housing and Child Care Meet is dedicated to our dear friend and colleague, Madeline
Carol McCullough. Madeline served as director of The Enterprise Foundation’s local office in
Washington, D.C., from 1997 until her untimely death in December 2002.
Madeline’s energetic determination made her adopted city, the District of Columbia, a better
place to live for thousands of low-income families working to build a better life and a brighter
future. We are grateful that she touched our lives, sharing her grace and wisdom so generously.
Madeline McCullough’s positive spirit lives on in our hearts and in our work.

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Contents
iv
Foreword
vi
Acknowledgments
viii
Executive Summary
Introduction
3
Chapter 1: The Enterprise Foundation’s Child Care Initiative and Evaluation
9
Chapter 2: The Enterprise Child Care Programs: Summaries and Comparisons
19
Chapter 3: Goals, Objectives and Outcomes
25
Chapter 4: Challenges and Lessons Learned
Case Studies
Network Support Programs
39
Chapter 5: Los Angeles
57
Chapter 6: New York City
75
Chapter 7: Portland, Oregon
93
Chapter 8: Washington, D.C.
Homeownership and Home Repair Programs
109
Chapter 9: Los Angeles
123
Chapter 10: Syracuse, New York
135
Chapter 11: Cleveland
Appendices
151
Appendix A: Resources and Tools
155
Appendix B: The Enterprise Foundation’s Child Care Resources
157
Appendix C: Surveys of Partners and Participants
179
Appendix D: Regulated and Exempt Child Care: Definitions by State
181
Appendix E: Evaluation Advisors

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Foreword
Lack of affordable child care is an overwhelming barrier to low-income people’s ability to find
and keep jobs – a key to moving up and out of poverty. To address this issue, The Enterprise
Foundation embarked on efforts in 1998 to help increase the supply and quality of child care
for low-income families.
Our interest in this work was galvanized by welfare-to-work requirements that imposed time
limits on welfare recipients, many of whom live in housing financed by The Enterprise Foun-
dation and managed by our community-based partners. They need quality child care in order
to work, to pay their bills and to keep their homes.
Home-based child care is the preferred choice of most parents for their younger children, and
that is true for low-income parents as well. But, home-based providers need professional
development and other support to provide quality care. Providing child care in the home is
also an income option for parents leaving the
welfare system. Therefore, The Enterprise
The mission of The Enterprise
Foundation sought to help women, through
training and other support, to improve the
Foundation is to see that all low-
quality of care they provide and to maximize
income people in the United
their income by improved management of
States have the opportunity for fit
their home-based child care businesses.
and affordable housing and to
For the children, child care spaces must be
move up and out of poverty into
safe and conducive to constru c t ive play,
social interaction and learning. Many home-
the mainstream of American life.
based child care providers in disadvantaged
communities live in dilapidated and unsafe housing. Because their incomes are very low, they
need financial assistance to rehabilitate their homes or purchase homes in good condition.
Enterprise responded to this need by marketing and tailoring housing assistance programs to
these home-based providers.
The evaluation of our programs and the creation of When Housing and Child Care Meet were
made possible through the generous support of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foun-
dation. This book documents seven of our home-based child care support programs in six
cities. It sets forth how the programs were operated, the challenges we faced and the lessons
we learned. A groundbreaking opportunity and challenge in this effort was bringing together
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nontraditional partners (child care organizations and housing organizations) and leveraging
their resources to improve and expand care for low-income children with working parents. We
were very pleased with the positive experiences and success of these partners in learning about
the issues and working with each other. We were also very gratified that this work has had a
positive impact on the care of thousands of low-income children.
We greatly appreciate the support and commitment to our child care programs from many dif-
ferent funders. They are: W. Alton Jones Foundation, Inc., BP Amoco Foundation (formally
ARCO Foundation), Bank of America, Burke Family Foundation, Citigroup Foundation, City
of Portland, Fannie Mae Foundation, Freddie Mac Foundation, Hasbro Children’s Foundation,
The Heckscher Foundation, Living Cities, John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, A.L.
Mailman Foundation, May Bank, J.P. Morgan Chase Foundation, David and Lucile Packard
Foundation, Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, Saint Ann Foundation, The Surdna Foundation, US
Bancorp Foundation, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. With their help,
we are improving the lives of children and their parents in low-income communities.
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Acknowledgments
First and foremost, The Enterprise Foundation thanks the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation for its generous support of this evaluation of Enterprise’s local child care pro-
grams. This funding made it possible to publish When Housing and Child Care Meet, record-
ing our lessons learned and making them available for the benefit of practitioners in the field.
Advisors
Enterprise is also very grateful to the national experts on child care and early education who
acted as advisors in designing the evaluation and focusing our lessons learned: Bruce Hersh-
field of the Child Welfare League of America, Bobbie Weber of the Oregon Child Care
Research Partnership, Anne Mitchell of Early Childhood Policy Research, Patricia Siegel of
the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network and Kathy Modigliani of the Family
Child Care Project.
Interviewees
The Enterprise Foundation wishes to thank the following individuals who graciously agreed
to be interviewed, and who reviewed and commented on editorial drafts. They provided us
with invaluable insights into the lessons learned throughout the implementation of these
Enterprise child care programs.
In Los Angeles: Veronika Cole and Patricia Siegel of the California Child Care Resource and
Referral Network, Patricia Koesler of the Child Care Resource Center, Caroline Jen with
Child and Family Services, and Sheila Wills with Crystal Stairs
In New York City: Margie Fuentes of Aquinas Housing Corporation, Anania Almonte and
Regina Kirk of Fordham Bedford Children’s Services/University Neighborhood Housing Pro-
gram, Mavelin Morales of Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation, Cynthia Rowe and
Nancy Kolben with Child Care Inc., and Suzanne Reisman, formerly with The Enterprise
Foundation in New York City
In Portland, Ore.: Lynn Knox with the Bureau of Housing and Community Development;
Marilyn States and Cynthia Wells of the Early Head Start Family Center of Portland; Carolyn
Morrison of Child Care Development Services; Marlene Farnum, local program evaluator;
Marcia Mulvey of Peninsula Children’s Center; Sarah Pearmine with Portland Community
Reinvestment Initiative; Nick Sauvie of ROSE Community Development Corporation; and
Rebecca Shine, formerly with The Enterprise Foundation
In Washington, D.C.: Travis Hardmon and Artherelle West of Nation’s Capital Child and
Family Development
In Syracuse, N.Y.: Kerry Quaglia of Home HeadQuarters Inc., and Peggy Liuzzi of the Child
Care Council of Onondaga County Inc.
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In Cleveland: Sheila McCoy-Carpenter of Cleveland Housing Network, Billie Osborne-Fears
and William Goodrich of Starting Point, Marie Kittredge of Slavic Village Development,
Chaunte Owens-Martin of Northeastern Neighborhood Development Corporation, and Kathy
Hexter and Susan Burkholder with Cleveland State University.
The Enterprise Foundation Staf f
Thanks to Patricia Magnuson, director of Enterprise Child Care, for her leadership of our child
care programs, especially our New York City program, and her unflagging support of this eval-
uation. We are also grateful to The Enterprise Foundation’s child care program staff, both cur-
rent and past, in our local offices. These tireless and dedicated individuals managed the pro-
grams described in this publication, reviewed case study drafts and coordinated the reviews by
our local partners: in Los Angeles, Sandra Gutierrez, Ann Sewill and Jennifer Caspar; in New
York City, Suzanne Reisman; in Cleveland, Leslie Strnisha and Leslie Brown; in Syracuse,
N.Y., Tania Miller; in Portland, Rebecca Shine and Meg Youngbar; and in Washington, D.C.,
Madeline McCullough, Dawne Collier and Deborah Stevenson.
Enterprise Evaluation and Research staff were involved in the child care evaluation and devel-
opment of this publication: Diana Meyer, evaluation project director and writer; Beth Williams
Pryor, editor; Sabina Cardenas, who helped with research and writing; and Tarri Ridgley, who
crunched the numbers. Several consultants were instrumental in this project: Toni B. Porter
and her team at Bank Street College Institute for a Child Care Continuum, Sally Mabon and
Sulaifa Habeeb, as well as Elizabeth C. Smith, an independent consultant, who wrote several
case studies. We also thank the team involved in publishing this book: Catherine Hyde, who
copyedited and oversaw the publication process; Dalila Brooks, who designed the cover and
managed the book design and printing; and Alicia Lindsey, who provided administrative sup-
port.
We also owe a fundamental debt of gratitude to Michele Piel, the original director of Enter-
prise Child Care. Her vision resulted in a national program that focuses on partnerships to pro-
vide greater supply, quality and affordability of child care. Michele clearly saw the need to
document our experiences in supporting home-based child care.
Local Partners
Finally, we wish to acknowledge all of our local partner organizations described in this publi-
cation. We appreciate their persistence and effectiveness in delivering programs to increase the
supply and quality of affordable, home-based child care in their communities.
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Executive Summary
After five years of experience with child care • Hundreds of parents are benefiting from increased
programs, The Enterprise Foundation and our
s u p p ly and quality of care for their children,
local partners have demonstrated the success
enabling them to work to support their families.
of a new community development partnership model
As evidence of the success of these child care pro-
for supporting low-income, home-based child care
grams, the great majority of our partners – both CBOs
providers – a model that has proven to increase the
and CCR&Rs – have found ways to sustain, and in
quality and supply of child care in low-income com-
some cases expand, the work we began together.
munities. This new model brings partners together
from two fields that have historically worked inde-
Background
pendently: child care resource and referral agencies
The Enterprise Fo u n d a t i o n ’s eff o rts in support of
(CCR&Rs) and community-based orga n i z a t i o n s
home-based child care started in 1998. We began
(CBOs), some of which are community development
developing local child care programs to help disadvan-
corporations (CDCs).
taged job seekers and workers have a better chance to
Through the Enterprise Foundation’s local child care
succeed in employment and therefore move toward
programs, these nontraditional partners joined together
economic self-sufficiency.
to create two types of support and enhancement for
The local programs were founded on partnerships
home-based child care providers. The first was net-
between CBOs and CCR&Rs. These programs were
work support programs that created new networks or
designed to enhance the quality and increase the
supported existing networks of home-based providers
supply of home-based child care providers (including
to offer training, resources, evaluations and peer sup-
licensed and unlicensed, or “kith and kin,” as well as
port. These support programs have not been widely
prospective providers) in certain low-income neigh-
used throughout the country. The second was housing
borhoods within six cities: Los Angeles; New York
assistance programs that improved child care environ-
City; Syracuse, N.Y.; Cleveland; Portland, Ore.; and
ments through home repair or home purchase. The
Washington, D.C. Our national and local staff raised
scope of these programs represents a signifi c a n t
the start-up funds for the programs, established part-
expansion in this still nascent approach.
nerships for program development and implementa-
Enterprise and our local partners found that the part-
tion, collaboratively developed program structures and
nerships between community developers and child
goals and provided management oversight.
care organizations had positive impacts on low-income
Four of The Enterprise Foundation’s local programs
children, their parents and home-based child care
aimed to create home-based child care provider net-
providers. As a result of these partnerships:
works that offered training, toy and book lending
• Thousands of low-income children are receiving
libraries and peer support, and worked to improve the
better care.
financial stability of providers’ child care businesses.
• Hundreds of providers have improved child care and
Three others focused on providing assistance with
business skills and are accessing more resources for
homeownership and home repair to improve the phys-
the children in their care.
ical quality and safety of child care spaces. Among the
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