Headstart Family Support Center is a Bothell non-profit organization offering preschool and support services to underprivileged families, ensuring that all children have access to education. However, unless it finds a new home by the beginning of the school year, this year’s summer vacation could be permanent.

“We’ve been looking, and actually going out and walking into churches and asking if there’s space, trying to find something that would fit [our needs],” said Headstart Family Support Center Program Director Tamara Piven.

Since its inception, the program, which is free for low-income families, has expanded in service size and is currently working with families in Bothell and Kenmore for approximately three hours a day, Monday through Thursday during both the morning and afternoon.

“Right now, it’s impacting our ability to get families enrolled. We are accepting families and not being able to tell them where they’ll be,” said Stephanie Lopez, family support specialist at Headstart. “That’s creating challenges for our families that work full time. Since we don’t know where we’ll be they can’t plan for that.”

Once they locate a space, Headstart will continue to ensure each child receives meals, learns through activities and is given the opportunity to grow in a safe environment with other children their age. Headstart also offers educational opportunities for parents and support for families going through hard times.

“We’ve received an accreditation from Early Achievers in Washington from the Department of Early Learning. All of our sites were certified as level 4 providers,” Piven said.

However, they won’t be able to provide these essential services if they do not have a new space. The current building does not have enough space, nor does it have disabled access to the building.

“Because we’re federally funded program, we have certain standards we have to adhere to, such as the size of the classroom, access to an outdoor area, safety kinds of things that are federally mandated,” Piven said. “That’s posed a problem, a place I may find has space, but not the others.”

Piven requires around 35 square feet per child. The program projects to have 19 children and needs around 700 square feet, though they are really looking for more.

“That would be ideal. We’ve talked about expanding,” Piven said. “There is more need for more room. If we could do more, we could expand.”

Piven said the ideal rent would be around $400 a month.