NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) touted a New Haven project as innovative on Tuesday, stating that housing initiatives for teachers will help attract and recruit educators.

“If we can specifically discount cost of housing for teachers and child care workers, it helps everybody because it helps those workers, but it also helps keep the cost of child care down by making it so the salary goes a little bit further for people working in child care,” he said during a tour of the Friends Center for Children New Haven Housing Initative.

The project is hoping to provide 30% of Friends Center’s projected 80-teacher workforce with housing within the next five years. Murphy said he’s looking into if the initiative could be expanded to other cities.