A Community That Goes Beyond Help with Rent
With inner strength, perseverance and well-timed assistance from SDHC, Lakesha endured a layoff due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then created a career and future filled with opportunity.
“For a long time, I just thought the San Diego Housing Commission … they just assist you with rent,” Lakesha said. “It took, to me, this pandemic to happen for me to see that it went beyond that. It was a community there that I never knew was there. And so now I get to share that experience with other people.”
She had recently been promoted to manager at a tax preparation company when the loss of business due to the COVID-19 pandemic brought that position to an end. She had a second, part-time job teaching life skills to women who experienced trauma, but Lakesha’s mounting bills and fears about how she’d continue to afford to raise her 4-year-old granddaughter kept her up at night.
“I was so – I was afraid. I was very scared because we were in COVID. And so, it was like, who’s hiring? Better yet, who’s interviewing?” said Lakesha.
A Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher rental assistance participant, Lakesha received temporary relief from SDHC on the portion of the rent she paid to her landlord. Emergency assistance from the SDHC Achievement Academy funded by Wells Fargo through a grant from the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) paid her car payment. She also received a laptop for her granddaughter to use for online early childhood learning programs during school and childcare closures.
She soaked up information from virtual trainings offered by the SDHC Achievement Academy on topics like using Zoom, establishing savings and first-time homebuyer programs. Within months, Lakesha landed a well-paying, full-time job with a company that also provides workforce development services thanks to collaboration between SDHC and San Diego Workforce Partnership.
“So now that I have something that’s really fulfilling that I can look to everyday – and like I say it’s not just a job, it’s not just a career, but it’s about changing somebody else’s life – that’s what’s fulfilling to me,” Lakesha said of her work helping others going through what she’s been through.
The financial stability also enabled Lakesha to start paying off a student loan for her bachelor’s degree and, she says, “For the first time in my life, I can actually save money.”
