WASHINGTON — In Northwest D.C., a day care is pleading with its landlord in the hopes of staying open to serve families in need of child care.
The Rosemount Center, a nonprofit child care center, has been renting its building from another nonprofit, The House of Mercy, for just $1 a year. But now, it faces the possibility of closing.
"It’s been a wonderful generous thing for them to do and we appreciate that,” Rosemount Center Senior Program Officer Janet Stocks said. “At this point though they have told us they are not going to be able to extend the lease under any term.”
Rosemount’s 20-year lease is coming to an end with no renewal in site and Stocks said they exhausted all options for renewing their lease at their current building and have been trying to find another space. They've had no luck yet.
“We worked for about a year to come up with a solution,” Stocks said. “How much money we could pay? Or what we could cover and none of them were acceptable. It’s very sad. I mean honestly coming in here every day is a joy."
WUSA9 obtained documents from Rosemount where in December 2022, the House of Mercy said they could not renew the lease because of financial means.
Current and alumni parents of this childcare center showed up Thursday to express their feelings about the center closing.
“It’s a very rare place,” alumni parent, Liz Sokolov said. “It would be a tremendous, tremendous lost to the community.”
“The more people that learn the more people that are joining this fight to save this just incredible institution,” parent Dahlia Sokolov added.
Staff members spoke up and said they are worried because this could mean they will lose their job and a place for some of their children. One parent said going to Rosemount is a generational tradition.
“This particular building has been a landmark for not just the community, but for the child developer center,” Rosemount teacher Eleanor Johnson said.
Johnson has been teaching at Rosemount for almost 45 years and said she never thought she would see it close.
“The Rosemount center, it allows you to teach children and to work with families that I don’t think they would go into any other center and get the kind of treatment that we give here,” she said.
The House of Mercy released at statement to WUSA 9 saying:
“House of Mercy’s lease of the building and property to Rosemount Center at just $1 per year is no longer sustainable. This decision was communicated to Rosemount Center’s leadership two years ago in order to provide adequate time for them to secure a new location, and to work with the Rosemount Center community to transition in time for the 2024-2025 school year. House of Mercy’s decision was made after careful deliberation and in accordance with the Board’s fiscal responsibility to the House of Mercy and to the organization’s ongoing mission of service to the Washington, D.C., community.”
Meanwhile people in the community said they aren’t giving up on Rosemount just yet. More than 1,000 people signed a letter and sent it to the board at the House of Mercy in hopes for a change of heart.
“I don’t want to contemplate it, I’m geared up to fight for it,” Sokolov said.
If nothing is renegotiated the child care center's lease would end August 2024.
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