When Aleshia Valero left the Thames River Apartments in New London she didn't want to go back into assisted housing. "It's almost like a vicious cycle, once you get in it's very, very hard to get out," she said. Buying her two-bed mobile in Groton was the only option she could find to get out of the system.

Five years later Valero shares the space with her four children and their dog and sleeps on the sofa. She has struggled to find full-time employment as a single mother without access to childcare for all her children.

Valero said she has dreams of returning to work and buying a home with a backyard where her children can play and a driveway where they can ride their bikes.

"I want to work, I want to buy a home, I don't want to be in a mobile home for the rest of my life. I really don't," she said.