LOUISVILLE — The single, formerly homeless mothers living in Family Scholar House apartments are used to seeing faces drawn down with pity or judgment when they tell their stories. Pregnant at 15. Bruised and beaten by a boyfriend. Kicked out of school. Living in a car or a windowless basement with an infant.
But when these women speak about their lives, their eyes rarely fall to the floor, and their faces do not mirror that unspoken expectation of shame. It may be the 3.0 GPA they’re earning at a Kentucky university, or the nursing degree just one semester away, or the fact that their first-graders sleep well and are learning to read.
Single moms have one of the lowest college graduation rates in the country, which has been linked to poverty that impedes their children’s ability to escape as well. But these formerly homeless women — along with a handful of men — in Louisville have a college graduation rate that exceeds that of their single, childless, more affluent peers. With a creative use of the Section 8 housing program, wall-to-wall counseling and perseverance, this community of women has defied the odds. Now, cities around the country are beginning to explore whether they can do the same thing.
[For more on this story by Meredith Kolodner, go to https://www.washingtonpost.com...m_term=.7bb63c060ccb]
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