Success Stories

Jessica’s Story: From Bankruptcy to B.A.

Jessica Carnes never gave up. She may have wanted to many times, but for the sake of her children and her own pride, she didn’t. Raising three children as a single mother earning less than $12,000 a year, she worked 40 hours a week and went to school nearly full time. When did she sleep? She says she doesn’t really remember.

On public assistance since 1996 and in bankruptcy, her life and that of her children seemed at an all-time low. That’s when she discovered Family Self Sufficiency (FSS) through MSHDA’s Housing Choice Voucher program. The program, administered through the Northwest Michigan Community Action Agency, helps people like Jessica set goals and work toward leaving public assistance and achieving self-sufficiency. For Jessica, that meant earning a bachelor’s degree and realizing the dream of homeownership. She attended financial management classes, increased her income, improved her credit score, and amassed savings through FSS and an Individual Development Account (IDA). In 2007 she earned a B.A. in Human Services from Baker College. A short time later, she applied for MSHDA’s “Key to Own” program and a USDA Guaranteed Rural Housing Loan.

Today, for the first time in nearly 13 years, she is free of public assistance, has a well-paying job with benefits, owns her own home, and is inspiring others to dream the same dream.

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