Above: Tiffany Taylor, a senior at Miles College, has benefited from the scholarship fund from the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District. (Solomon Crenshaw Jr./Alabama NewsCenter)

More than once, Miles College senior Tiffany Taylor wondered if she could afford to go to college or remain enrolled once she got there.

“There were times when I didn’t have enough financial aid to attend college here,” the 23-year-old from Smithfield Court public housing community said. “I prayed about it, kept the faith and God blessed me and allowed me to be here.”

A scholarship from the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District was part of the answer to that prayer.

The annual golf tournament raises money for scholarship fund. (contributed)

Tonight, HABD is kicking off a campaign to develop a $1 million endowment for the HABD Scholarship Foundation. That event, from 5:30 to 8 at the Wine Loft in downtown Birmingham, will be followed Friday by the George Pegues Memorial Family Self-Sufficiency Golf Tournament at Roebuck Golf Course. Pegues, a former deputy director of HABD, was a supporter of the golf tournament.

Michael Billingsley is a coordinator of HABD’s Family Self-Sufficiency program. He works with residents of Section 8 homes while a cohort helps residents of public housing communities.

“Sometimes they need that extra person or resource to help move them in the direction they need to be going in order to become self-sufficient,” he said. “The primary objective is to help residents gain economic self-sufficiency.”

HABD Board of Commissioners Vice Chairman Cardell Davis is president of the Scholarship Foundation. He said education is “the first step in being self-sufficient.”

The aim, he said, is to move residents of Section 8 homes and public housing to the next level.

Students like Tiffany Taylor can go to college thanks to funds raised through the golf tournament. (Solomon Crenshaw Jr./Alabama NewsCenter)

“We want to provide the opportunity for them to go to school whether it’s a two-year college, a four-year university, trade school,” he said. “We want to help our residents be all they can be. If any resident wants to further their education, we don’t want to turn them away.”

Taylor said her mother is a single parent to her and her older brother. The 2010 product of A.H. Parker High School is a social work major at Miles who interns just up Myron Massey Boulevard from the campus with the Fairfield Housing Authority.

Half the proceeds from the golf tournament go to the scholarship fund. The rest helps pay for resources used in the FSS program.