The Brief

Marquavious Gadley finds it a relief that his toddler son’s preschool is just a few steps away from where he lives. It’s his son’s first day, and Gadley has forgotten how many times he’s come in to visit throughout the day.

“I still feel I have to come check on him. I guess it’s just the father in me just wanting to be able to just make sure he is OK and stuff. But I know he's OK,” he said.

His almost 2-year-old son runs around the classroom and stops to explore new trucks laid out near a rug. His teacher, Shonneise Rieux, gets on the ground with him.

“You want your kids to be able to feel that comfort and that welcome and that nurturing, and that's what we do in our classroom,” said Rieux, who teaches the Early Head Start class. “And the families are right here. They can come. … We're just one walk away instead of one call.”

The new childcare center, which can take up to 24 toddlers and preschoolers, started welcoming kids last week. The building — a former Denny’s — is on the same grounds as a family homeless shelter in a model that both housing and childcare advocates hope to replicate.

The motel-turned-shelter in Woodland Hills houses nearly 100 families. “Many shelters and motels, they're just not child friendly," said Ken Craft, CEO of Hope the Mission.

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Elly Yu

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LAist

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Hope the Mission, which runs the motel-turned-shelter, is partnering with the Child Care Resource Center, which provides childcare resources and runs other Head Start programs in the L.A. area.

“Our job is not to only work with the children, but work with the parents. … Even in a short time, we’d like to provide the best quality [early education] possible,” said Carla Morales, the childcare center’s director.

The unhoused family situation in LA

A recent review of data by LAist found homelessness has gone up among L.A. County families since 2024. The lack of reliable child care is a big barrier for families trying to find stable housing.

Families can stay at the shelter anywhere from three months to over a year, depending on their circumstances, said Karen Zelaya, a case manager at Hope the Mission. As funding for housing resources in L.A. County has dropped significantly, she said families might be staying longer but that stable childcare is a crucial piece in helping families move out.

“ They would like to go back to school, finish their GED, or look for employment, or look for housing, but what the barrier is, is not having someone to watch the children,” she said.

She says at the same time, the children now get to have their own space to learn and socialize with other kids their age.

“Many of the families sometimes don't come out to play outside, or the children are too small to come outside and play,” she said.

The Head Start center can take up to 24 students from the shelter.

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Elly Yu

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LAist

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“These kids are not just gonna be babysat while they're there,” said Ken Craft, founder and CEO of Hope the Mission. He said the center has preschool teachers trained in early education, which matters because research has shown that housing instability for children can affect their development.

“That's tragic … so this is our opportunity to say, 'OK, let's try to level the playing field,'” Craft said.

The state agency that licenses childcare centers said it doesn’t track the number of childcare centers co-located with shelters, but there are a few around the state.

“It is very rare because most shelters just don't have the space, and they wouldn't necessarily have the funding to create it,” Craft said. “Many shelters and motels, they're just not child friendly.”

The center’s building was renovated using philanthropic dollars, he said. The two organizations are working together again on another childcare location in the Antelope Valley.

Serving families after they leave

Shonneise Ruiex has taught early education for over 25 years, but it’s the first time she’s taught at a center specifically for families experiencing homelessness. She said she’s had her own family members who’ve gone through housing instability.

“So this is something very dear to my heart and just meeting the families and seeing their experiences and the smiles on their face when they pick their kids up,” she said. “They say it takes a village. Well, we're that village helping the children grow.”

While the childcare is a welcome resource, Gadley says he’s hoping not to stay too long at the shelter.

“We're kind of hoping to get our own place soon and try to figure out the rest of our life with our two kids,” Gadley said.

But even as families leave the shelter and childcare center, the program will work with parents to find subsidized childcare wherever they end up.

“ We would like to keep the children with us. We would like to keep the families, but I know that they have to move on,” Morales said.