Life in public housing sometimes can be difficult, but it's also a lot like life anywhere ā made up mostly of work, school, family and friends. Still, many who don't live in public housing have a negative image of those who do.
Two former residents are trying to change that.
Rico Washington is one of them. The 38-year-old with long dreadlocks and a neatly trimmed beard grew up in Kimberly Gardens public housing apartments in Laurel, Md. When he was younger he was embarrassed about where he lived, he says, and would have co-workers drop him off down the street.
"I would wait till they had gone far down [Maryland Route] 197 and then I would double back and start walking towards Kimberly Gardens," he says.
Today, Washington is no longer embarrassed. He knows that many hard-working, incredible people live in public housing, despite the stereotypes of drugs, crime and despair.
[For more of this story, written by Pam Fessler, go to http://www.npr.org/2015/01/12/...fe-in-public-housing]
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