It really is all or nothing for him, and others.
The kinds of jobs he can get are incredibly low paying. If he works, he has to work as much as possible to pay the cost of living, which means a second job and maybe a third if he can get it. And he’s living with a girlfriend and roommates. Even if he had the time to take a class, the money to pay for it and a CC was nearby (where he moved places him in a rare NC CC desert with nothing within 20-30 minutes, which is further complicated because he doesn’t own a car and relies upon his roommates/girlfriend) his living conditions aren’t suitable for studying.
If he chooses to go to college, he’d have to find a way to live for free on campus at a 4yr or dramatically reduce his living expenses somehow to attend a CC full time (to receive his FinAid he can’t take a class a semester) while working part time. Moving back with his mother really isn’t an option, because of logistics not any trouble between them.
He either goes to a 4yr residential that somehow costs him nothing out of pocket while hopefully providing a few hundred a semester to help him close that ever-present gap, or he works. There’s no realistic middle ground.