The Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara (HACSB) is honoring two Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) Program graduates who used the stability of subsidized housing to build the skills and assets needed to become financially independent.
Anna Carranco and Iris Manzanarez have worked over the last five years to achieve the goals they set for themselves, completing the program this year despite the global pandemic.
FSS is a voluntary five-year program dedicated to empowering families in their efforts to overcome barriers and achieve self-sufficiency and economic independence through training, education and supportive service resources.
From the time the families enroll in FSS to the time they graduate, many triple their income, saving government funding and recycling tax dollars.
“I appreciate this program and owe so much of my accomplishments to it because it has allowed me to strive for better and to break through stereotypes,” said graduate Anna Carranco.
Carranco graduated from FSS on March 1, and moved out of her affordable housing unit to pursue her next goal in the program, which was home ownership. Several years earlier, her mother Imelda also completed the FSS program and became a pre-school teacher.
Carranco and her brother Eddie followed in their mother’s footsteps by graduating from college. Carranco, who has a degree in criminal justice, is a Sheriffs’ deputy; her brother has a degree in biological engineering and is an academic counselor.
The second graduate Iris Manzanarez is a single mother of four. A long-standing Housing Authority resident, CalWORKs (a public assistance program that provides cash aid to eligible families that have a children in the home) was her sole income source for some 15 years.
Manzanarez enrolled in FSS on April 1, 2014, and continued to receive CalWORKs for four more years until she secured her first job in 16 years. After she slowly phased out of CalWORKs and was completely off the welfare program by April 1, 2020, she secured a full-time job as a cashier at United Thrift Store.
Manzanarez continued working full-time throughout the pandemic, completed financial literacy workshops, and was able to graduate from FSS on April 1.
“I sleep at nights better knowing that I have some type of savings accumulated that will benefit me for my future,” she said.
The FSS program currently has 135 participants and is supported by both Housing Authority staff and the FSS program coordinating committee, comprised of a network of 23 local businesses/service providers including Family Service Agency, Workforce Resource Center, American Riviera Bank, Department of Rehabilitation, SBCC School of Continued Education, Union Bank, World Financial Group, Girls Inc, Women’s Economic Ventures, CommUnify, Spherion, and Transition House.
The committee offers program vision and coordination; streamlines access to services in life-skills; workforce training; financial literacy workshops; academic counseling; vocational rehabilitation; family counseling; and job placement.
The HACSB is a public agency created for providing safe, decent, and quality affordable housing and supportive services to eligible people with limited incomes, through a variety of federal, state, local and private resources.
Since 1969, HACSB has developed and/or secured some 4,000 units of affordable rental housing for Santa Barbara through a variety of federal, state, local and private funding sources. For more, visit http://hacsb.org/.