Wanda Santiago and Nancy Noel have been the best of friends since they attended second grade together.
“We’ve always been there for each other,” Santiago said. “I’ve always been there for her and she’s been there to support me through everything.”
In 1995, both friends had reached the depths of despair. They were single parents, unemployed, and receiving federal assistance and food stamps.
“No one ever wants to be on Welfare to begin with,” said Santiago, a Weehawken resident. “But I had no other choice. I had two boys to take care of. I had to do something. I couldn’t find a job and I had no help.”
Nancy Noel found out about a new program that was being instituted in Weehawken called the Weehawken Family Self-Sufficiency Program (FSS). Funded by a grant from the Federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the FSS program was established in Weehawken’s Housing Authority to help people who were willing to join the work force and get off federal assistance, as soon as possible.
According to Alane Finnerty, the program’s coordinator since its inception in 1995, the federal department of Housing and Urban Development supplied Weehawken with 50 FFS spots, as it had with practically every other Hudson County municipality that has public housing.
“The slots were allocated based on people receiving existing Section 8 living assistance,” Finnerty said. “It was designed to get people into living wage jobs, trying to utilize the resources of the area.”
The program offered assistance in finding jobs, including providing courses in specialized fields; helped people acquire commercial driver’s licenses; taught them how to write resumes; and helped them get acquainted with financial aid offices.
“We work at putting people in contact with the existing social services,” Finnerty said. “It’s strictly a volunteer program, but the participants have to be willing to take the necessary steps and complete the entire program.”
As soon as the participants in the program received an increase in their earned income, their housing rents would be increased. However, since they were part of the FSS program, the federal government matched a portion of their increased earnings each month.
That money was then deposited in an escrow savings account for five years and those savings would become eligible to be withdrawn upon completion of the five-year program.
On their way
When Noel found out about the FSS program, she introduced the idea to Santiago.
“When Nancy enrolled in the program, she told me that it might be something that could help the both of us,” Santiago said. “I was willing to see what would happen. I was willing to try anything.”
Within a year, both Noel and Santiago received the proper training that would place them back in the work force. Noel works as a kitchen nutrition assistant at Meadowview Hospital. Santiago is a worker for the Visiting Homemaker Service in Hackensack.
“I took a course in homemaking and that enabled me to get the job I’ve [since] had for five years,” Santiago said. “The program helped a great deal. Alane Finnerty was always a big help in trying to help us. It really helped to change my life.”
Last week, both Noel and Santiago officially graduated from the FSS program. They are no longer on any form of federal assistance or food stamps. As part of completing the program, they received their escrow checks, which they are free to do with as they please, from Weehawken Housing Authority Director Dominic Facchini. “It really feels good to know that we made it,” Santiago said. “We made it together because we always push each other and stick with each other, no matter what.”
Finnerty said that with Noel and Santiago completing the program, 12 Weehawken residents have completed the five-year program and made their way back to the work force, with the help of the FSS program.
“We set some goals to get as many people to complete the five years as possible,” Finnerty said. “Unfortunately, some do not complete the five years. They have to want to improve their situation and work to improve their situation. It’s not easy.”
Added Finnerty, “These two young women have such great spirit and it’s definitely contagious. And it’s always nice to see such supportive friendship.”
What does her completion in the FSS program prove to Santiago?
“That anything is possible, as long as you try hard and you never give up,” she said.