Grant will help Whatcom Family YMCA expand child care
An $800,000 state grant will be used by the Whatcom Family YMCA for a new child care center that will have room for 24 more children.
The grant was part of $17.2 million that the Washington State Department of Commerce awarded in February to 39 existing and new early learning providers across the state. Lummi Nation also received $800,000.
The space, referred to as an early learning center, would be built near the YMCA’s existing center at 2415 Rimland Drive in the Barkley area in Bellingham.
It would replace the existing building that was meant to be used for just a decade, according to Bill Ziels, CEO/executive director of the Whatcom Family YMCA.
“Twenty years later, we’re still in that temporary building,” Ziels said to The Bellingham Herald.
The YMCA serves 98 children at its Barkley center. It also has a center in downtown Bellingham, which serves up to 85 children.
Between those locations it has a waitlist of 514 children, a reflection of the shortage of licensed child care in Whatcom County.
It’s a trend reflected statewide, where 49% of Washington parents struggle to find, keep and afford child care, according to a report titled “The Mounting Costs of Child Care in Washington State.”
“This will at least make a small dent in that,” said Ziels of the YMCA’s wait list, adding that the new space also will help the YMCA with its efforts to provide child care to more kids — at least seven — who receive state subsidies or YMCA scholarships.
Helping families
Ziels added: “Through the YMCA’s scholarship program, we can serve families who do not qualify for state assistance but do struggle financially. Oftentimes, these families were in (the state subsidy program), but their income has increased slightly, thus pushing them out of the federal poverty level limits.”
“They often fall under United Way’s ALICE category,” Ziels said.
About 39 percent of Whatcom County households struggle to afford basic necessities that include child care, food and housing, according to United Way’s ALICE report. In Bellingham, 44 percent of households struggle to do so.
Child care in Whatcom County is among the least affordable in the state, and scarce space has led parents here to put their unborn children on waitlists, which can stretch a year or more.
Child care providers, including the YMCA, have said that an increase in the state minimum wage, the high cost of real estate, the state’s child care subsidies not keeping up with the actual cost of providing the service, and licensing requirements deter new providers from entering the market.
Affordable housing
As for when construction on the new Barkley child care center will start, that depends on another project, because the new center would go into a proposed building with 80 units of affordable housing.
Seattle-based Mercy Housing Northwest, which already owns and operates six affordable housing properties in Whatcom County, is behind the development, which is in the early stages.
The project would help provide two of Bellingham and Whatcom County’s greatest needs, affordable child care and affordable housing.
Mercy Housing Northwest still needs to lock down financing and obtain permits, according to Colin Morgan-Cross, director of real estate development for Mercy Housing Northwest.
But construction could start in 2021, he said.
Morgan-Cross said it was too early in the project to say how much construction will cost.
As for the $800,000 grant, Ziels said that it’s a good head start for the YMCA’s share of its piece of the project, which could cost up to $1.5 million. It is also applying for other grants as part of its fundraising efforts.
“It’s a great first step for us to expand and serve more kids,” he said.
Although the new center is part of the proposed affordable housing development, Ziels said the additional child care spaces wouldn’t be set aside for Mercy Housing clients.
This story was originally published February 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
