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      Photograph by George Sakkestad

      May Chen has her hands full during story time at May's Family Daycare, on Wilson Avenue.

      Child care feels housing squeeze

      By LESTER CHANG

      Child-care providers May Chen and Trinh Trinh want to provide the best service to children under their care.

      But Chen and Trinh, who have many Sunnyvale clients, said they need more space to accomplish that goal.

      Chen, owner of May's Family Childcare on Wilson Avenue, and Trinh, owner of Monticello Child Development Center, one of the largest child-care providers in Santa Clara County, said their businesses are at capacity.

      They could find larger spaces, but said they couldn't afford to rent them. They also can't afford to buy a building in which to relocate at this time.

      Their plight illustrates a "crisis situation" that has developed for the city's 200 or more child-care providers in the past six months, said Nancy Johnson, child-care coordinator for the city of Sunnyvale. Those providers are facing a shortage of space that leaves many parents looking out of town for providers to care for their children.

      "We have a vacancy rate of about 1 percent for infants, a 4 percent rate for preschoolers and a 3 percent rate for children in after-school programs," she said. "And it will only get worst."

      This lack of space has meant that parents must put their children in "low-quality programs" while they wait for a spot to open up in programs they prefer, Johnson said.

      "It has been shown that the first three years of a child's life are the most important," she said. "Without high-quality programs, some children might never reach their intellectual, emotional and social potential."

      She said she recently spoke to one set of parents from Sunnyvale who placed their child in a facility in Mountain View because they couldn't find what they wanted in Sunnyvale.

      "They were torn over having to do that, but they didn't have an option," Johnson said.

      The space problem is linked to an economic boom that started in Silicon Valley about two years ago, she said.

      With business prospering, more companies have moved into the valley and have been willing to pay top dollar for office space, she said.

      Child-care companies pay about $1 per square foot, but the high-tech companies can pay more, possibly up to $2.50 per square foot, she said.

      The child-care companies also fret about class-size reduction programs implemented at public schools in Sunnyvale and throughout California.

      Some companies have leased space from the Sunnyvale Elementary School District, but they might have to move when the program involves more students, Johnson said.

      California Young World and Child Development Inc. have rented space at seven elementary schools in SESD.

      California Young World also rented space at the former Fairwood Elementary School. The north Sunnyvale school will reopen this fall.

      According to Deputy Superintendent Ben Picard, neither company fears having their three-year leases revoked by the school distract.

      The SESD has an agreement with the city of Sunnyvale to provide space for the child-care providers, he said.

      In the early 1990s, the city issued a bond of more than $2 million to buy portable classrooms for the child-care programs. The portable rooms were located at the schools.

      The district repays the bond through revenues raised from lease fees paid by child-care companies, Picard said.

      But Trinh, who has leased space at the former Monticello Elementary School from the Santa Clara Unified School District, said many districts can revoke permits if they need the buildings for their educational programs.

      "Where does that leave us?" Trinh said. "It is an unstable situation."

      Nearly 6,000 children, ranging from less than 2 years old to age 12, attend child-care centers or programs in private homes in Sunnyvale. They are licensed by the state Department of Social Services Community Care Licensing Division.

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      This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, April 30, 1997.
      ©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.