Advice from Successful Savers

Jacqueline Massey

Jacqueline Massey’s trust of the IDA program didn’t come easily. “We had seen so many other programs come and go; we were tired of agencies speaking for us, but not speaking to us.”

As a resident of Valley Green, a 312-unit public housing complex in Southeast Washington DC, Jacqueline Massey saw the city’s skyline from her hilltop for the first time in 1997 when her home of 27 years was demolished. As the 32 brick buildings crumbled to the ground, a handful of families braced themselves for an uncertain future, but one that had to hold more promise than the past. Valley Green had been a crime- ridden and drug-consumed concrete compound with no birds, no flowers, no trees, no laughter, no safety—and to many—no hope.

When asked where she found the courage to stay in District 7, an area that logged 126 calls to police per month and had the highest number of drug arrests in the entire city, she stoically responds, “You find when you bury your own children.” A mother of five sons and one daughter, Massey tragically lost one of her boys to unnecessary violence—he was only 26.

With “a lot of scars” in her heart, Massey said somehow she let her anger go, but remained determined to fight—and change—the war zone in which her family lived. Still, talk of a new HOPE VI mixed-income housing community with homeownership opportunities was met with skepticism by Massey and her few remaining neighbors. Although Capital Area Asset Building Corporation and member organization Nation’s Capital Child and Family Development (NCCFD) expressed their commitment to helping residents become homeowners in the new Wheeler Creek development, Massey’s trust didn’t come easily. “We had seen so many other programs come and go; we were tired of agencies speaking for us, but not speaking to us.”

Von’Eva Pettigrew, NCCFD’s director of the Self-empowerment Family Development program, recalls her first meeting with Massey as a confrontational one. Pettigrew’s attempts to explain the plans for the HOPE VI project and the accompanying NCCFD Individual Development Account (IDA) program, were interrupted with Massey’s blunt rebuttals and dismissals. Pettigrew knew she had her work cut out for her, but she was determined to convince Massey to redirect the incredible strength and force within her to this very rewarding and exciting program. In time, Massey did just that. She started her CAAB IDA in 1999. In 2001 she purchased her new HOPE VI Wheeler Creek townhouse. Her IDA was used to cover her down payment and closing costs.

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