LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – The first day of the new school year just ended in Fayette County, and according to homeless advocates, about 1,100 Fayette County students will leave the classroom without a stable housing situation to call home.
Data from the previous school year indicated about 900 displaced students.
This was the situation Rosa Vega and her twin sons Nikolas and Lukas found themselves in at the end of the last school year.
Her sons suffered from depression after their grandmother’s death, and Vega had to give up her job at Keeneland to attend the boys’ doctor’s appointments.
She was unemployed for ten months.
The rent was due and rising, and at the beginning of May Vega and her family had to move out of their house. They didn’t know where to go, as their sons still had three weeks of school before the summer holidays.
“As a parent, you do as much as you can and see what you can do,” Vega said. “If we have to sleep in the car, wow. That means you do what you have to do.”
Thankfully, Vega didn’t have to sleep in the car. She and her family moved in with her oldest son for nearly a month. However, we know some Fayette County students aren’t so lucky.
In the video above, WKYT photojournalist Darnell Crenshaw tells us how a Goodwill Industries program helped Vega get a new home and a new job before the start of the new school year.
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