MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — Child care costs too much for millions of Americans. Parents are having to leave their jobs to take care of their kids.
For some, It costs more to send your child to daycare than it does to cover tuition at UNC Charlotte.
Mecklenburg County is offering a new program to help parents cover the cost of child care.
The program will provide child care vouchers for up to two years.
Anyone who makes three times the federal poverty income level will be able to get the funding. For example, a family of three earning less than $65,000 a year would be eligible.
County leaders said this was the level other states had increased the program to recently.
Families who are accepted into the program will have to pay 10% of their monthly gross household income.
"The cost of living has just outpaced so many people who otherwise would have been able to get by with what they have," temporary Commissioner Wilhelmenia Rembert said.
According to Robert Nesbit, Mecklenburg County's policy and operations manager, the county hopes the $10.5 million program will help support 700 families between the ages of zero and 12 looking for child care.
The program is funded using leftover money from the federal government.
The program starts on June 1.
"I’m just excited to see that there’s something on the horizon," Commissioner Vilma D. Leake said. "People that need it the most and that’s women, single women, single mothers with children, struggling to survive."
Interested parents will be able to apply on Child Care Resources Inc.'s website or by calling 704-328-2181.
Participation is on a first-come, first-serve basis.
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