Essex County families experiencing homelessness can receive up to three (3) months of child care while they seek to establish continued eligibility.
This includes children/youth who are:
- sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason.
- living in motels, hotels, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations.
- living in emergency or transitional shelters.
- abandoned in hospitals.
- using a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings [within the meaning of section 103(a)(2)(C)].
- living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, bus or train stations, or similar settings.
- migratory children (as such term is defined in section 1309 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965) who qualify as homeless for the purposes of this subtitle because the children are living in circumstances described in clauses (i) through (iii) therein.
At the end of the grace period, participants will need to provide documents to verify program eligibility requirements for continued child care subsidy services including proof of child age, child citizenship, residency and one of the following:
- Employed a minimum of 25 hours per week;
- Enrolled in a school/training program, a minimum of 20 hours per week;
- Enrolled in College 12 credit hours per semester (Fall and Spring) and 9 credit hours in the summer;
- In a combination of full-time work and school
When you are ready to apply, know that the New Jersey Child Care Assistance Program application is now available online. Use the following link https://www.mynjhelps.gov/home to be directed to the State’s secure application system, MyNJHelps.
To learn more about the Child Care Assistance Program please visit: https://www.childcarenj.gov/Parents/CCAP.
For additional information, please call us at (973) 297-1114.