Kimberly Short: Working her way up with housing assistance
Without the Family Self Sufficiency program and Section 8 rent assistance, Kimberly Short says she would be homeless. She was homeless for two weeks once and she never wants to relive it.
“I have plans now,” said Kimberly, 44, of New Brighton. She recently finished her associate degree in criminal justice and started course work on a bachelor’s degree. She has her sights on law school.
Kimberly Short models the educational expectations she has for her children Baraka (12) and twins D’Mazjai and T’Mazjai (11). She carries a 4.0 GPA and plans to go to law school.
“I tell my kids it’s important to get educated,” she said. “They are learning to set goals and to be responsible. I also tell them it’s important to be active in school because you never know what talents you might have.” The eldest, Baraka, sings in a chorus and her twins, D’Mazjai and T’Mazjai, play the flute and baritone in their school band.
The road has been long, starting decades ago when Kimberly became pregnant with her daughter, now 27, and dropped out of high school. A host of bad choices, abusive relationships and uninteresting jobs followed. “Always though, since I was a young girl, I have wanted to become a lawyer. Between the FSS program and getting involved in my church, I have made a huge change in my life,” she said.
Escrow fund serves as incentive
Kimberly had a Section 8 housing voucher from the Metropolitan Council Housing and Redevelopment Authority (Metro HRA) when she enrolled in Metro HRA’s Family Self Sufficiency program five years ago. Her program coordinator laid down the ground rules: Set attainable goals to increase her income; as the goals were met, she would pay more for rent. An amount equivalent to the extra payments would be put in escrow.
Participants have five years to complete their goals, at which time they can receive the escrow funds, if they are working at least 32 hours per week and no longer require cash welfare assistance. Clients are allowed two, one-year extensions to cover for setbacks. But if those deadlines pass without progress, the client loses the escrow account.
Kimberly had been making steady progress, and had reached all of her goals for a period of time, until she lost her full-time job last winter. At that point, she had saved $10,000. It serves as a key motivator for her now. The program allows one-time access in case of emergencies. Kimberly recently used some funds to make basic car repairs so she could continue her job search.
“My boys and I are thankful to have a working car,” said Kimberly. “It would hurt to lose all that money. I am hopeful though. I had a job interview this morning!”
Council helps meet housing needs
The Metropolitan Council’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority (Metro HRA) assists nearly 7,000 households with monthly rental assistance through operation of the state’s largest Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program, as well as through several other rent assistance programs, including the Family Self Sufficiency program.
The Council also helps fund development of affordable housing through the Livable Communities Act (LCA) program. Interlaken Place in Waconia, which received an LCA grant in 2007, has 48 rental units affordable to families at 50% of area median income.
Metro HRA makes payments to more than 2,000 private property landlords each month, injecting over $50 million of federal and state funds annually into the regional economy. In 2011, about 9,000 children were housed through the program. Households served by Metro HRA:
- Average $14,339 in annual income
- Average 2.8 persons
- 48% are headed by an elderly or disabled person
- 86% are headed by a female
- 41% have wage income
For seven straight years, Metro HRA has earned the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s highest ranking for program operation.
The Council also helps fund development of affordable housing through the Livable Communities program. In 2011, the Council made $2.3 million in grants to 10 communities from the Local Housing Incentives Account. The funding helped to develop 308 new affordable rental units, rehabilitate and preserve 74 existing units, and rehabilitate for resale 25 units of affordable ownership housing. The funding will leverage over $38 million in private investment and nearly $49 million in other public investment.