A Stable Home and a Plan for the Future

With help from the San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) Achievement Academy’s Power of One program, Mary increased her credit score, learned how to manage her finances and began to plan for the future.

“This program has given me the confidence to go back to school and further my education, so I will be going back to school,” said Mary, a single mother of three children, ages 15, 8 and 3.

She recently earned an associate’s degree in science from a trade school, which helped her secure a job as a respiratory therapist. Mary now plans to obtain a bachelor’s degree and eventually become a nurse practitioner.

Mary first started receiving federal rental assistance in 2010 in Louisiana. In 2012, she moved back to San Diego, her original home, with her Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher.

For the last five years, she has lived in Lincoln Park with rental assistance that has been essential to having a stable home for herself and her children.

“If I didn’t have it, I would have been homeless,” Mary said.

Growing up, she did not experience housing stability.

“I constantly had to worry, like, if I was going to come home from school, if we would have to pack up and move or make some excuse why we couldn’t be in our home anymore,” Mary said.

Federal rental assistance helps Mary provide a different upbringing for her kids.

“The Housing Commission has prevented my kids from having to experience something like that,” she said.