SAN ANTONIO — During the pandemic, the affordable child care problem evolved into a full-blown crisis. Rising day care costs forced families to seek alternative solutions. 

Samantha Martinez says she looked into child care for her 2-year-old, Elijah, but discovered it was pretty expensive.

“Ever since he was born, I’ve really done the whole stay-at-home mom thing,” Martinez said. “Realized I would just be working to pay for that.”

Naya Trujillo-Mullins had a similar experience with her 11-month-old.

“One day care quoted me at $1,500 a week for her,” said Trujillo-Mullins.

Nationwide, there is an affordable child care crisis. In Texas, nearly 95,000 kids are on a waitlist because child care subsidy programs lack funding, causing child care deserts to spread across the state.

“More than three kids for every one seat of child care,” said Gretchen Salyer, the founder and CEO of June Care. “I think there (are) like 333 ZIP codes that are child care deserts, and San Antonio has 27.”

Gretchen Salyer founded June Care during the pandemic to match working parents with stay-at-home moms. It allows host moms like Martinez to set their own rates.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for stay-at-home moms and families needing child care that isn’t so expensive,” Martinez said. “Or like the same cost as their mortgage or rent.”

Roughly 1,500 Texas families rely on June Care. The platform launched in San Antonio about a month ago and already has about 500 families. 

“More than half of American families don’t have access to child care,” Salyer said. “So, it is truly a supply problem. So, we’ve figured out a way to build supply really quickly. But we are moms, and safety is the most important thing.”

Salyer says no mom can host kids from more than one family at a time. Although a child care license isn’t required, host moms go through interviews and must provide references.

“It seems like they are very thorough with the background checks and everything,” Trujillo-Mullins said. “It gives me like sense of security. Especially since it’s other parents.”

Martinez says she enjoys hosting. It’s her way of helping out other moms while watching her son grow up.

“Contribute to our family household financially while spending time with my child,” Martinez said.