Four early childcare centers in Brooklyn are facing abrupt closures after the city decided not to renew their leases, citing low enrollment and an oversaturation of low-cost childcare centers in the area.
But local politicians and providers say the city’s data is wrong — and that the Department of Education is months behind on payments, leaving the centers struggling to stay afloat. If they close, providers said, hundreds of families will be left without childcare.
Nuestros Niños on South 4th Street in Williamsburg has 96 children enrolled, said executive director Ingrid Matias Chungata at a Jan. 24 rally outside the facility. But the DOE said they only had four registered through an online portal.
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who attended Nuestros Niños as a child, said the facility has not been paid by the DOE since May.
“In that time, they weren’t able to submit the 96 students that they have because they have no budget for them,” he said.
The city didn’t call or visit to confirm how many children attend Nuestros Niños, Chungata said, and she wasn’t warned that the lease would be terminated.
“We were left in the dark, not one phone call from the DOE,” she said.
The Department of Education did not respond to Brooklyn Paper’s questions about the closures.
The four childcare centers affected — Nuestros Niños, Grand St. Settlement on Stanhope Street, Friends of Crown Heights on Prospect Place, and Fort Greene Council on Fulton Street, plus an additional center in Queens — are contracted by the city to provide free childcare and early childhood education. The buildings they operate in are privately-owned and leased by the city.
Robert Cordero, executive director of Grand St. Settlement, said the Stanhope Street location is at 100% enrollment, with 70 children enrolled and a long waitlist, though one child’s official registration has been “pending” in MySchools for over a month.
Last spring, the landlord told Cordero there was an issue with the lease, but he was assured the city was working it out. On Jan. 7, Gov. Kathy Hochul visited the Stanhope Street facility to propose a new state fund that would create and renovate childcare facilities.
“We’ve been in Bushwick since 2012, we run a good program, there was never any indication that they were going to cut it,” Cordero said. “Then, on January 14, I got a call from the deputy chancellor’s office stating that the city was not going to renew the lease effective June 30, which is the end of the city’s fiscal year.”
He suspected the city’s decision to end the leases is an effort to shed real estate and contract costs. The city owes Grand St. about $3 million across all its locations, and hundreds of thousands for the Stanhope Street facility.
“We have to float that on lines of credit, pay interest, on money that we were contractually obligated to receive,” he said. “We’re owed money, the lease is going to end. We have to do better in New York.”
Childcare in New York City can cost tens of thousands of dollars per year, especially for young children. Since taking office, Mayor Eric Adams has cut millions of dollars from the city’s 3-K and pre-K programs, and advocates have warned that his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2026 poses further threats to those programs.
Valerie Agostini, an educational director at Grand St., said the center doesn’t just offer childcare, but critical education for youngsters so they’re ready to enter the public school system.
There are few alternatives for childcare in the neighborhood, she said, and most don’t operate during the summer or in the evening after regular school hours. If families can’t find affordable alternatives for their children, they may be forced to stay home from work, leave their kids with friends or family, or even leave them home alone.
Williamsburg resident Lourdes Nunez went to Nuestros Niños every weekday and every summer when she was a child, she told Brooklyn Paper. Years later, her children and grandchildren attended too.
“Without this, we wouldn’t be able to work and provide for our families, nor live here,” she said. “They just want to not pay rent so they can build another condominium here for people who are not from this community and steal away children’s education and the foundation that we need.”
Local politicians criticized Adams for the cuts, and said the city should have done more to warn the centers about their enrollment numbers.
“This is disorganization, this is a lack of seriousness, this is a lack of prioritization for our families, this is a lack of prioritizing our childcare workers, this is disrespect for our communities ,and we will not take it,” said Council Member Sandy Nurse at the Jan. 24 rally.
Reynoso urged Adams to visit the facilities himself, and criticized the mayor for traveling to Washington, D.C. for the inauguration while Brooklynites dealt with his administration’s decisions.
“There are five centers that are being shut down in this city, four of them in Brooklyn, in the borough he used to represent,” he said. “What they’re saying is that centers like this don’t have value anymore. Because this city is not about taking care of the needy, this city is not about taking care of the poor. This city is about making it work for [Adams.]”
At a Jan. 21 press conference, Adams said the city was paying $1 million per year in rent at Nuestros Niños, and believed only four children were attending. He said he has since spoken with Reynoso and committed to meeting with his team to “find out exactly what the issue is.”
“If we have our information incorrect, or someone didn’t register in time for those seats, we’re willing to sit down and figure out how every child that wants a seat, every family, will have access to a seat,” Adams said.
