Our credit is too poor to buy a house traditionally - what are some other options?

I have bad credit and my husband has twelve negitive items on his credit report - mostly steming from credit bills his ex wife flaked out on that we are paying back slowly. However our family is growing and out growing the apartments we've been living in. I desperately want a better quality of living for my family, a yard for my children instead of a parking lot to play in. A neiborhood with families that care about their kids and raise them with some ethics, instead of the kids around here who might walk right in if the door wasn't locked and take off with our things. I will have my Nursing degree in less than two years and my husband is computer tech. As I said we have poor credit so this doesn't seem to matter. We don't have thousands just laying around for a down payment and don't want to as for a co-signer. I have looked into bad credit loans, rent to buy, there doesn't seem to be any way that we will ever get out of these apartments we are living in. Is there hope?