Monday, Oct. 20, 2003 | 11:07 a.m.
About 5,000 families are on a waiting list for child care subsidies in Las Vegas, and they may have a better chance at getting help in coming weeks because others are losing the subsidies.
Families that are the least poor are being dropped from the program to give others who are worse off a shot at the limited funding, officials said.
The changes are due to a lack of funding. The Nevada Welfare Division received no increase in its budget from the recent legislative session, nor any additional funding from Congress in the last year.
As a result, the Economic Opportunity Board, a nonprofit agency that is contracted to provide child subsidies in Southern Nevada, has had to limit that program to just the very poor, leaving many working parents at low-paying jobs scrambling to find money to pay for day care for their children.
Nevada Welfare officials say they are not sure how many children are affected by this situation because in the end all $34 million allocated to the state annually for those subsidies will be spent for its intended purpose.
While some people will lose the subsidy, others arguably more in need will get it, says Jerry Allen, a state human resources employee who runs the Welfare Division's child care program.
"It's not a cutback so there is no way to compute the total number of children who will be affected," Allen said. "Because we are flat-funded we had to make this readjustment to help as many people as possible stay off welfare."
The EOB provides subsidies that parents use to pay day care centers, with the poorest people receiving 100 percent of child care costs and those on the highest end of the formula receiving 15 percent of their cost.
Under the readjusted formula, the EOB will be paying on a range of 100 percent to the poorest people to 55 percent for those who qualify at that level.
The readjustment, Allen said, will allow those among the 5,000 families on the child care subsidy waiting list who fall within the 55 to 100 percent need to receive the funding that is being taken away from those who qualify for 15 to 54 percent of the funding.
"Those who receive 15, 30 or 45 percent are not at immediate risk of going on welfare," Allen said.
Allen said that while he knows that is no comfort to the families that are losing the subsidies, his agency is charged with prioritizing its limited funds so that it can help those most in need.
Phil Irish, owner of Creative Beginnings at 5245 E. Bonanza Road, says 40 percent of the parents of the 460 children under his care, get EOB subsidies. He advertises that his day care center is "priced for working parents."
Irish said some of those affected by the cutbacks have pulled their children out of his facility, though he does not know the exact number.
"They say they just can't afford it anymore," Irish said. "They have to look for alternatives to a licensed, safe and sanitary place where their children are watched by a trained staff.
"Those alternatives include a relative, neighbors or even asking themselves whether their 10-year-old can indeed handle the responsibility of watching their 5-year-old. These are tough choices they have to make."
Irish said he offers one of the lowest rates in town for day care -- about $100 a child each week. A $15 weekly subsidy to help pay for child care may not seem like much to some people, but over a year that would add up to $780, Irish noted.
"For some, it is the difference between whether they are going to reduce their grocery budget or do away with some other necessity," Irish said. "They do not have disposable income, and child care is not a luxury to them. It is a necessity."
Irish said there is an irony that the federal government has long pushed to get people off welfare, yet it does not provide enough funding for one of the factors that frees parents to leave their homes to work.
"The solution to this problem is we have to determine whether child care is a priority -- we have to decide what commitment we will make to our children," Irish said.
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