Marcia

Marcia Guity is one of the first people to enroll in the Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program that Compass now operates in partnership with Boston Housing Authority. She lives in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston, and spent her childhood going back and forth between Boston and Honduras, where her parents were both born.

Marcia shared that she has received a Section 8 housing voucher since she was 22 years old. When she was younger, she says she always worried about her rent going up if she earned more money. When you live in subsidized housing, your rent is based on your income – so if your income goes up, so does your rent. With the FSS program, if Marcia earns more money, she can capture the corresponding increase in rent as savings instead, which she can then use toward her financial goals. “My mother always told me that you’ve got to make sacrifices,” says Marcia. “I don’t mind my rent going up if it’s going to be beneficial to me in the near future.” 

Marcia wants to improve her credit and would love to own her own home – she hopes to get married and start a family one day, and says that having a home she can call her own would be an important accomplishment for her. She would also love to own a car. Marcia is disabled and walks with crutches, and shared that the adaptations she would need to be able to drive a car are very costly.

Marcia joined the program just last year, but says she’s already learned so much. “The program made me feel more encouraged to look for a job and to pay off my debt, and I’ve learned how to respond to creditors,” she shared. She’s excited for the future, but reminds herself that “a lot of times people think everything has to happen overnight, but it’s a process.”

Marcia hopes that she can be a source of encouragement for other people who deal with some of the same challenges she has faced in life – specifically, she says, her experiences as a black woman living with a disability. “It’s time for a change,” says Marcia. “In life, you have to move up the ladder. This program is an opportunity to move forward, and to be able to call the shots in my own life.”