Felicia Cohen walked into the Riverview Courts Apartments Activity Center not knowing quite what to expect.

Cohen is a resident of this housing community who worked for an answering service until a car accident put her on the sidelines. Still, she'd dreamed of owning her own home.

Thursday night, she found a way to fulfill her dream.

"I wasn't really expecting this. I thought it would be a program, a meeting," Cohen said after visiting with representatives of Rock Realty of Phenix City. "But now I have hope."

Hope of changing her circumstances.

"It was overwhelming," she said. "I could actually qualify to have my own home."

Cohen was one of about two dozen residents from Riverview Courts Apartments who came to the activity center to explore the possibility of home ownership. Each of the residents filled out a questionnaire on employment and income, then talked to real estate and banking officials, such as Rock Edmunds of Rock Realty and Eddie Lowe of CB&T Bank of East Alabama, about what they would need to do to qualify for home ownership.

"Many of them don't realize that they can possibly overcome their obstacles from the past," said Edmunds, who had about a half dozen representatives at his table. "Somebody who has had bad credit seven years ago or 10 years ago, or they had a bankruptcy and they think they can never overcome it. They're still carrying all of that with them. They say they don't believe that they can and hold back.

"But a lot of those people could have bought a house years ago and had no idea that they could have. If we can help them, we'd be glad to do it."

Phenix City Housing Authority Director Judy Hare said the key thing is helping people to understand they can rise above the circumstances that caused them to seek public housing.

"We tell them, 'You don't know. We can help you,' " Hare said. "It's like they have a totally different attitude: 'You mean I can?' Of course you can. I mean, this is exciting for them and for us.

"We really didn't know how many we'd have today. But even if we have a few and the word gets out, and then we're able to respond to the questionnaires we have, it's a start."

Some of the residents have lived nowhere but in public housing. Dewayne Richardson, who will lead the redevelopment of Riverview Courts Apartments for developer Mike Bowden, said programs like this could end the cycle that sometimes sees generation follow generation living in public housing communities.

"I think this is wonderful. I think with the mandate HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) put down as far as the Section 8 ownership, all agencies look for it as a way to break the cycle. The constant renters, the dependency," Richardson said. "I think that's really going to set our nation apart, especially ones that can adapt a viable plan on it. That is really positive."

The housing authority recently received a grant from HUD for a family self-sufficiency coordinator. The family self-sufficiency coordinator will work with the questionnaires turned in by residents Thursday and in subsequent meetings. The coordinator will work with the residents to determine what can be done help them buy a home.