Prospect Lefferts Gardens Is A Childcare Desert, Study Finds

PROSPECT LEFFERTS GARDENS, BROOKLYN — Prospect Lefferts Gardens is among the city's worst childcare deserts, where parents face slim chances of finding a spot for their kids in a daycare center, according to a new data analysis.

The neighborhood ranked fifth in a listing of New York City neighborhoods with the worst rates of daycare centers, with a meager 8 percent availability rate for children under two, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer announced Wednesday.

And those limited facilities are filled to the brink: there is not space for any of the 2,934 infants born in Prospect Lefferts Garden and Crown Heights in 2015 and 2016, the Comptroller's data show.

Stringer released the data Wednesday with his new plan NYC Under 3, which would triple the number of city-backed daycare centers and create spots for about 84,000 children, whom the Comptroller's office said would otherwise be sucked into a cycle of inequality.

“Quality, affordable child care must be a fundamental right for every family, not just a privileged few," Stringer said. “Government has ignored the crisis in child care for too long and we must act now."

Richer city neighborhoods see higher rates of licensed child centers, according to the study, and access to those centers — which provide space for just 6 percent of the city's youngest citizens — come with a large price tag.

The average child care center costs roughly $21,000, more than some City University of New York tuition or the city's median rent, the report found.

"Lack of quality child care breeds job instability for parents, harms child development, and likely drives families out of the city," the report reads. "As children in low-income families are most affected by exorbitant costs and dismal capacity in child care centers citywide, the social costs accrue to their families and communities overtime, perpetuating a cycle of inequality."

Capacity is most limited in Tottenville and Great Kills in Staten Island, Bushwick, and Sunnyside and Woodside in Queens, where providers can accommodate fewer than 5 percent of children under two, Comptroller's office data show.

Lack of childcare options leaves mothers in these areas with little choice but to leave the workforce to care for their children and sacrifice what experts estimate could be hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary, the Comptroller said.

The Center for American Progress reports a 28-year-old mom making $30,000 a year can expect to miss out in $275,000 in wages, retirement payments and benefits if she quits her job to take care of her baby until it is three years sold.

String estimates his NYC Under 3 plan would cost $660 million to fund day center expansions and improvements in the communities that need them most.

Senators Jessica Ramos and Brad Hoylman and Assembly Member Latrice Walker plan to introduce legislation to tax New York City private employers with payrolls of $2.5 million or more to fund the program.

See where your neighborhood ranks in the full study here.