Local & State Headlines

Program helps with first homes

• An Albany woman enjoys her first home after more than a decade of apartment-hopping, thanks to a government program.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY —Since moving out of her parents' home at age 18, 30-year-old Tiffany Conley has shuffled from apartment to apartment, living with constant concern as to where her next place to stay would be.

It was last year, thanks to help from a Georgia Department of Community Affairs program, that Conley bought her first home.

"In the beginning, I cried," she said in an interview in her West Waddell AVenue home Wednesday about her purchase of the house. "It felt good. It felt real good – knowing you're not going to move around anymore and it's yours."

Conley, the mother of one boy with another due in four weeks, said she didn't think she would ever have her own home because "I thought you had to be married to do all that."

In 2000, she applied to the DCA's Section 8 program, which provides rental assistance contingent upon the applicant's meeting certain requirements, after seeing an advertisement for program openings. Because she had a child, she felt she needed to "get grounded," Conley said.

She was accepted into the Section 8 program and enrolled into the Family Self Sufficiency program in 2003. During her following three years in FSS, a coach helped her to improve in areas of her life such as employment, finances and her credit score.

"I had my own obstacles, but working with Mrs. (Anitra Daniels-)Williams, it was easy – basically just doing what you're supposed to do," said Conley, who works as a hair stylist. She is scheduled to graduate from Albany state University in May with a degree in criminal justice.

Conley isn't stopping there, though. She plans to continue her education by getting a master's degree in criminal justice so she can get a job as a probation officer.

The soon-to-be ASU graduate said she picked the home because she grew up in the area.

"I checked for houses in this area and this is the one my heart fell one," she said, though Daniels-Williams pointed out to her that some of her other picks simply weren't suitable.

"One around the corner, she said 'What do you think?' and I said, 'Oh no!' " Daniels-Williams said.

Because Conley's father did construction work, she was able to make a few improvements to the home – replacing some doors, reflooring a bathroom and sheetrocking a room – before she moved in, she said.

"I love it," she said. "This is like my neck of the woods."

Daniels-Williams said the local DCA office serves 19 counties and has 2,200 "voucher holders," or those who receive vouchers from the sate for rental assistance. Conley is still receiving vouchers from the state, but will not receive them once her income is high enough, Daniels-Williams said.

DCA officials met Conley, who closed on her house in March of 2007, at her home Wednesday during a stop in town. Commissioner Mike Beatty described Conley as one of the program's success stories.

"The program is designed to help young ladies like Tiffany who want to move on," he said.

Albany Mayor Dr. Willie Adams, who delivered Conley 30 years ago, also made an appearance Wednesday at the event, saying he was "especially proud" of the woman.

"I, as mayor, am proud of this lady because I delivered her some years ago," he said. "She's elevated herself through hard work and determination.

"She's an example of transitioning from being on special assistance programs to being self sufficient, so to speak, or independent of those programs."

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