Cesar’s story

By Timothy Pratt

Sunday, Dec. 2, 2007 | 1:17 a.m.

Cesar Murcia is the kind of man who looks down and goes full steam ahead, alone if possible.

Stocky, a grip for a handshake, he seems to see the first half of his life as a waste and the second half as catching up.

But almost in spite of himself, the strong-willed immigrant from Colombia fell into the Family Self-Sufficiency program at the Las Vegas Housing Authority five years ago, and now has seen himself in situations he never thought possible.

Like being the one with the most money in an escrow account among 26 others who recently finished the program. Like buying a house for himself and his three children.

"I never imagined this in Colombia, where you can't even get a job, much less a program like this," he said over malt-flavored soda in Oiga, Mire, Vea, the Las Vegas Valley's only Colombian restaurant.

Murcia came to the U.S. 15 years ago with a plan to study English. But he soon found himself working long hours in fast-food jobs instead. He met and married a woman from the U.S. and through that marriage became a citizen. He still found studying for a career elusive, though computers interested him greatly. The marriage failed. He met another woman and they formed a family. He got a job as a porter at Mandalay Bay.

He tried to buy a house - in his mind, he said, for his three children. But with a $10.50-an-hour salary and nearly a decade of bad credit, he found it impossible.

Then a friend told him about the family program.

This was something new - "They care about you," he said, almost incredulous. He made a plan built on cleaning up his credit, buying a house and studying computers.

He got a better-paying job as a custodian in the Clark County School District. He worked long hours, sometimes up to 70 weekly, got promoted and now earns $16 an hour.

Nearly five years into the program, he had nearly $28,000 in an escrow account. This year, he found a house he liked. He remembers taking the check to the bank.

"I was nervous I never had so much money in my life," he said.

Murcia now has his three-bedroom house, and a goal he still hasn't met: studying computers. He hopes he can find the discipline after work, or a way to reduce his hours.

He also hopes the whole experience leaves lessons for his children.

"Whatever I haven't been able to do, I hope they can do better," he said. "And that they should work hard to get the things they want. Oh - and that they should seek help when they need it."