When Ashley moved into her first apartment last month, she was overjoyed. After years in the foster care system and months of couch surfing, Ashley, 23, could not wait to have her own place.
“I was jumping the first day I moved in, literally, I was screaming and jumping. I almost cried tears of joy,” she said.
Ashley, who asked not to use her real name to protect her privacy, entered foster care at 15. She aged out of the system when she was in college and living in campus housing. After she graduated, she looked for an apartment she could rent with the money she’s saved from working since she was 14, but found her options were unsanitary, in neighborhoods hard to access by transit, and too expensive, she said…