Families are desperately searching for childcare arrangements after a daycentre was suddenly evicted - leaving more than 50 kids stranded.
Cozy Home Childcare & Learning Centre opened in 2020 to help provide child care options for 6-week babies and children up to 12-years-old.
Owner Morgan Brown revealed the childcare became so popular she had 50 kids to look thanks to the help of a local development organisation and other communities who expanded the business by moving into a new building in 2020.
However, families were left stunned after being told the building at Avondale Town Centre was shutting down after a sudden eviction notice.
The centre was open Monday for families to stop by to pick up their belongings and then closed its doors.
"I feel heavy with the burden of what the parents are having to go through, what the staff are having to go through," Ms Brown told WLWT.
"I was not under the impression we would close, all until — well through this past weekend."
According to the owner, eviction proceedings started in late April, but Morgan was desperately trying to find a solution by reaching out to city leaders and local organisations for help.
She believed there was the hope the business, in Avondale, Cincinnati, US, could remain open - but they were evicted on Monday.
Mum Keyshawn Byrd said she was worried she will not be able to find another child care option quickly.
"You don't want to worry about your kids while you're at work — not getting treated right. And I feel like Cozy Home was giving my kids what they need," Keyshawn said.
Her children, a 5-year-old and 10-year-old boys, attended the childcare centre and loved it.
But now Keyshawn is having to make frantic phone calls trying to get her kids in other day centres.
"They're just saying that they're full," she said. "Their summer program already started. Sorry, we can't help you. Then they send you out to other child care and they tell you the same thing," she said. "If I don't find no support, I have to keep calling off work or send my kids to Virginia, and I don't want to do that."
She hopes not to send her children to stay with close relatives in Virginia but fears this will be her only option for the summer until school starts again.
Community Builders, a Boston-based non-profit that owns and manages the Avondale Town Centre, said it was the courts decision to end the tenancy.
In a statement it said: "We respect the recent court ruling to end the commercial tenancy of Cozy Home at Avondale Town Centre. This court decision follows years of documented concessions we extended to Cozy Home, in an effort to preserve access to child care in Avondale.
"Providing high-quality child care at Avondale Town Centre continues to be our highest priority. We understand the temporary disruption this may cause families and are connecting parents with licensed, short-term child care providers.
"We are grateful to our Avondale partners and neighbours for their continued support. Avondale Town Centre continues to attract and retain a variety of local businesses with quality services and amenities for local families."
