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Housing for Early Childhood Professionals
June 7, 2023
The greatest happiness is to transform one’s feelings into actions.
-Madame de Staël, 1766-1817, Political Theorist
-Madame de Staël, 1766-1817, Political Theorist
The city of Milwaukee is taking a unique approach to compensating and empowering early childhood professionals through a new partnership between Community Development Alliance and (LISC) which “aims to build 50 affordable, owner-occupied homes for early-childhood educators that will help the future owners build wealth, while chipping away at the minority homeownership gap, improving neighborhoods and encouraging more workers to pursue a career in child care.”
With significant funding coming from American Rescue Plan Act, these 1,000-square-foot homes, each with 3 bedrooms, a bath and a full basement, will be built on vacant lots near five early childhood centers. Each house will be sold for roughly half the cost of construction, resulting in a 30-year mortgage with a monthly payment just under $740, with the down payment covered by the program.
According to Urban Milwaukee, “In the Milwaukee metro area, white residents are twice as likely to own their home as Black residents and 1.4 times more likely than Latino residents. Due to lower incomes and/or living in older properties that can require more spending, more than 55% of renters and 31% of homeowners spend more than 30% of their household income on housing, a level the federal government and other agencies have labeled as ‘cost burdened.’ The early-childhood-educator program is one of several the CDA has underway to attempt to close that gap.”
With significant funding coming from American Rescue Plan Act, these 1,000-square-foot homes, each with 3 bedrooms, a bath and a full basement, will be built on vacant lots near five early childhood centers. Each house will be sold for roughly half the cost of construction, resulting in a 30-year mortgage with a monthly payment just under $740, with the down payment covered by the program.
According to Urban Milwaukee, “In the Milwaukee metro area, white residents are twice as likely to own their home as Black residents and 1.4 times more likely than Latino residents. Due to lower incomes and/or living in older properties that can require more spending, more than 55% of renters and 31% of homeowners spend more than 30% of their household income on housing, a level the federal government and other agencies have labeled as ‘cost burdened.’ The early-childhood-educator program is one of several the CDA has underway to attempt to close that gap.”
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Comments (3)
Displaying All 3 CommentsEugene, OR, United States
Yes, Fatma, it's a real struggle in many places. My hope is as we share creative ideas like this, more can follow. Best of luck to you and thank you for sharing.
Mableton, GA, United States
This is great and I see it as a great opportunity to compensate early childhood educators. Homeownership is something that most people want. I believe all early childhood organizations should look into this. This is an incentive that I believe would persuade others to consider the field of early childhood. The pay is not great, but we offer homeownership incentives. Maybe they will also make stipulations for the longer you stay at your center; we take money off your mortgage, almost like a loan forgiveness program. I see this as a great opportunity! Good Job, Milwaukee!
wesley
hamilton , ontario, Canada
I wish in Canada especially in Hamilton we have the same program. I am an early Childhood Educator and We are all struggling as the oay is not the best and most of us cannot afford to buy a house.
This is a good incentive to bring people in this forgotten profession and will make the educators live with comfort.
I am so proud of what milwaukee is doing this can make other places follow their lead.
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