BOSTON, MA (WBZ-AM) -- A longtime child care provider for low income families in Brighton is now set to close in June if it can't find another land-lord forcing parents scrambling to find a backup plan.
The Action for Boston Community Development Head Start program at St. Gabriel Parish is being forced out of its Washington Street home for 34 years, after officials at St John Seminary decided not to renew its lease which ends June 30th.
The Brighton program serves 70 children, some of whom are homeless.
John Drew, President and CEO of ABCD says the property sold to a developer and being converted to high-plus rentals.
“We don’t have any place to go,” said Drew “and we’re being offered nothing at this point by the developing community or the seller,” he said
He asked the seminary if the non-profit could purchase the basement of Our Lady of Presentation church to relocate the program, but in a letter obtained by WBZ NewsRadio1030, Monsignor James Moroney told Drew back in March, the board of trustees unanimously rejected the plan.
They cited it’s not in the long term interest of the Seminary.
Now parents like Claudia Arrecis are in a pinch to find a backup childcare option.
“it’s just distressing because I’m a Catholic myself,” Arrecis said. “The church is to serve the poor it seems that…there is no heart to the situation.”
WBZ NewsRadio1030 has reached out to the Monsignor for comment.
WBZ NewsRadio1030’s Bernice Corpuz reports.