(Coeur d'Alene) Kim Carlson's journey to self-sufficiency began in 1992, when the single mother of two (9-year-old Daniel and 17-year-old Nicole) began receiving rental assistance through IHFA. The journey came full circle April 14, when Carlson closed on her first house, a 1,120-square-foot, 3-bedroom home north of Coeur d'Alene in Spirit Lake.

Along the way Carlson, a cook and nutritional educator at the Head Start in Rathdrum, took critical steps needed to get past several of the barriers she faced, but the biggest step forward on the journey was when she enrolled in IHFA's Family Self-Sufficiency program in the summer of 1999

"I saw that it was going to be hard work, but that there was a positive end result to it," Carlson says. "I didn't see any alternative that was going to help me get into a home."

The program, a component of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development's Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program, is designed to empower families to become financially self-sufficient and no longer reliant on government assistance. Although FSS does not directly provide education or employment, the program helps to find the resources in the community to help participants with their education, employment and financial planning goals to become self-sufficient. FSS offers career counseling and other support services as well. Carlson has taken the training and directives to heart, and she officially graduated from the program in late April.

"Kimberly has been a pleasure to work with," says Bette Woinowsky, FSS Specialist in IHFA's Coeur d'Alene Branch Office. "She has faced several hardships but never gave up. I am excited for her."

Carlson's move to home ownership involved several entities - IHFA's FSS program provided an escrow account, USDA-Rural Development provided her home loan, and participating lender Wells Fargo and Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle provided a $10,000 grant in Home$tart Funds (available to anyone who has received housing assistance in the last 12 months).

The FSS program is particularly attractive because it includes the accumulation of funds from HUD through an interest-bearing escrow account, which grows based on the increased earned income of the FSS participant. Upon completion of the program, the participant may utilize the escrow account to help pay for home ownership costs.

IHFA's FSS program began in 1995 and has produced 249 graduates statewide, 106 of which have become home owners. Currently 205 people are enrolled in the program. IHFA has signed contracts with 994 families since the beginning of the program.

"I tell people it is a very worthwhile program," says Carlson. "I share it with people at work whenever I have the opportunity. I tell them it is hard work and you have to be accountable, but in the end, after all of your hard work and dedication to the program, the result will be a great reward and investment for your family and yourself."

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The Idaho Housing and Finance Association, a financial services and housing business organization, provides funding for affordable housing in communities where it is most needed and when economically feasible.