VICTORVILLE, Calif. — An affordable housing shortage, sky high interest rates, and stagnant wages are all enough to stop many hopeful homebuyers, but not all. One grandmother is achieving this American dream, but even with the benefit of years of federal help behind her, she’s making a big sacrifice.
Bridgette Spikes was a single mother when she applied for a Section 8 housing voucher decades ago. So much has changed since then that rental assistance is something she’s no longer going to need.
Spikes has a lot to unpack. She’s had 53 years to accumulate thing, which is how long it’s taken with the help of government assistance, to buy her first home. It’ll be a place for her as well as the grandkids she helps raise.
Getting a Section 8 housing voucher years ago set her on the path to homeownership. Through a voluntary program, she managed to reduce her dependency on federal aid and increase her pay, which seeded her savings for the necessary down payment to leave renting behind.
“Sometime pinch yourself, is it really happening? It’s really real. It’s just a blessing. It’s a happy-sad occasion, so many people have gone on that I would have just loved to have shared this moment with them,” Spikes said.
Deputy Executive Director for the Housing Authority of the City of Long Beach, Alison King, knows Spikes and the odds she’s overcome.
“There are families that you know really lean on the subsidy and rely on it in such a way that it’s kind of scary to not have it, so she’s very courageous in what she has done,” King said.
When Spectrum News first interviewed Spikes, she was living in a smaller Long Beach rental. To afford a more spacious, single-family home, Spikes went inland to Victorville.
“The farthest I wanted to go out was Corona, however — unaffordable,” Spikes said.
The home may cost less cash, but it’ll cost her more time as Spikes keeps commuting to work in Long Beach.
Buying a house ensures a legacy of security.
“I don’t never want my grandchildren … to ever be homeless,” said Spikes.
For those still trying to obtain rental assistance, the Long Beach Housing Authority reports every single Emergency Housing Voucher they got has been utilized. While they have gotten 79 stability vouchers recently, something quite similar, it’s important to note how difficult it is for voucher holders to find receptive landlords.