Breaking up with NYC: Families leave in droves over childcare cost, affordability

WNYC News

Families with young children are increasingly grappling with whether to leave the five boroughs in search of more affordable child care and housing.

The exodus of families from the Big Apple worsened after the pandemic, but is reaching a fever pitch as housing costs increase and the cost of child care continues to rise, becoming a focal point among elected officials fighting over the future of the city’s free, universal preschool program. A report by the Fiscal Policy Institute released earlier this summer found families with children ages 6 or younger are twice as likely to leave the city as those without children. Though households with young children make up 14% of the city’s population, they represent 30% of those leaving, the report said.

Gothamist interviewed four sets of parents who shared the reasons why they left — or are planning to leave — the city. They all described anxiety over the cost of childcare and housing, as well as a feeling that the city they love was pushing them out. Taken together, their stretched budgets and frayed nerves point to the dire economic circumstances that could dramatically change who lives in the city.

“We are a constituency that has to be reckoned with,” said Rebecca Bailin, executive director of New Yorkers United for Child Care, a group that started eight months ago to fight for affordable child care options.

“I hear over and over again from families that are Black, white, Latino, Asian, from all families of all different backgrounds who tell me I grew up here, I worked here for 10 or 20 or 30 years and it feels like the city is no longer for me,” Bailin said. “That the city is really only for the richest New Yorkers.”

Growing affordability concerns are top of mind for New Yorkers, particularly around child care. A March Siena poll found 48% of New Yorkers say they’re spending more on monthly child care costs than they were two years ago. And overwhelmingly, respondents said they were spending more on housing, food and transportation costs this year compared to two years ago.Read the full story on Gothamist.com