Public Housing as a Launching Pad for This UMD Pre-Med Student

When Keira Dempsey describes the hospitals of her childhood, she does not talk about fear. She talks about home.

“I spent a lot of my childhood in and out of hospitals,” she said. “I had a lot of surgeries and just met a whole bunch of different doctors. To the point, it almost became like my second home in a way. I just remember seeing how those doctors really cared for me and did everything in their power to help me.”

Those doctors, she says, are a big reason she is now a sophomore at the University of Maryland, double-majoring in global health and neurobiology and physiology on a pre-health track, with her sights set on becoming a surgeon.

But the path from a Montgomery County childhood to a pre-med track ran through something less visible than any single mentor. It ran through the affordable housing where she grew up, and the programs that came with it.

Dempsey is a resident of the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County, the county’s public housing authority and one of the largest in the country. But HOC is not only a landlord. It is the county’s largest housing developer and a housing finance agency that issues bonds and helps first-time buyers with mortgages and down payments, said Chelsea Andrews, HOC’s president and executive director. “We touch the full spectrum of residents in this county,” Andrews said.

Andrews is blunt about the perception she wants to change. “Affordable does not mean low quality,” she said. “In fact, most of our housing increases the value of communities, creates inclusive, beautiful communities that have been embraced across this county.”

Dempsey grew up in Montgomery County, spending much of her childhood in Damascus before her family moved to the Bethesda area about five years ago.

“Without that financial barrier”

In high school, Dempsey took part in HOC’s STEAM Forward program, which helped cover the cost of science, technology, engineering, arts and math opportunities her family might not otherwise have afforded. “It’s just a way for me to pursue my interest without that financial barrier,” she said. The most striking example: HOC helped send her to a pre-college program at Duke University.

Those offerings run through HOC’s resident services division and its HOC Academy, which focuses on STEM and STEAM programming for young people. “Keira is such a wonderful young lady, with great accomplishments already and a bright future ahead of her,” Andrews said.

When she graduated, HOC awarded Dempsey a scholarship that she said smoothed her transition to college by covering costs she hadn’t anticipated. “There were some hidden costs I didn’t know about,” she said. “Luckily, that scholarship really helped pay for those costs, so I didn’t have to worry about it as a freshman.”

The award is the Tony Davis Memorial Scholarship, named for a late HOC colleague “who cared so much about the youth,” Andrews said. HOC offers it to graduating seniors in its programs each year, with awards starting at $2,500, weighing grades alongside “your commitment to giving back, your dreams for the future, as well as how you have immersed yourself in the community.” The agency also funds summer enrichment, including at Ivy League programs.

The help didn’t stop at move-in. “Even a couple of days ago, I reached out to someone at HOC I knew because I wanted help finding scholarships, and she helped refer me in the right direction,” Dempsey said. “So I wasn’t just going in blind.”

She is quick to name names. “Erika Conner was the first person I really was introduced to at HOC, and I still keep in touch with her today,” she said. “Shout out to Erika Conner.”

It is the kind of support Dempsey wishes more people associated with public housing. “I wish more people understood that HOC is really there to help you achieve your goals, whatever they may look like,” she said. “Everyone there really just wants to see you succeed, and they rejoice in your successes.”

HOC’s portfolio has increasingly leaned on mixed-income development, with properties like The Laureate, where amenities such as a resident lounge and a fitness room sit alongside affordable homes.

The people behind the path

Dempsey credits her mother first. She had cycled through a few dreams before medicine, from modeling to law, and, she said, “through all that, she never was like, ‘I don’t think you should do this.’ She was already finding paths and doors for me” before Dempsey even knew to look for them. She also points to her Girl Scout leader, who helped build her leadership skills and taught her “how to advocate for myself,” and to her pastors and her faith.

More than a roof

Andrews wants HOC judged by more than occupancy. Its nonprofit arm, Housing Opportunities Community Partners (HOCP), is “the heart and the heartbeat” of the programming, she said, funding everything from financial-literacy classes run in partnership with PNC to a back-to-school festival that handed out more than 500 backpacks and a fatherhood initiative that supports more than 2,000 families.

That work leans on outside partners. PNC Bank’s relationship with HOC began as a banking tie in 2008 and grew into affordable-housing development, community-development lending and the kind of resident programming Andrews describes. Amber Bell, PNC’s senior vice president and Greater Washington market manager for community development banking, said the bank’s biggest contribution is not any single check but staying at the table. “Meaningful progress does not come from a single program or financial contribution,” she said. “It comes from listening, working alongside HOC, and consistently connecting residents with resources that can improve their financial well-being and quality of life.” PNC helps fund programs including the Homebuyer Advantage Club, the Family Self-Sufficiency Program and the Fatherhood Initiative, an approach Bell said is meant to “meet people where they are” at different stages of life.

The next frontier, Andrews said, is an initiative she calls the Opportunities Innovation Center, a dedicated space where residents could take AI, robotics and drone classes and then be connected to jobs where they can use those skills. Some of those classes already exist; the facility does not yet. For adults, she said, the goal is practical: “You walk in and you leave out with a new LinkedIn page.” As AI reshapes entry-level work, she added, that kind of preparation is “key” to making sure residents “are prepared for the future.” HOC is still raising money and courting partners to build it.

The need is large. More than 40,000 families sit on HOC’s Wait List, Andrews said. She measures progress in keys and acceptance letters: a Homebuyer Advantage Club program produced three first-time homeowners in under six months, with five more house-hunting. “Every time someone gets the keys to their home, every time someone gets the scholarship to that school … we know that we are on the right track.”

For Dempsey, the math is simple. “They’re investing in kids who may not have that disposable income,” she said. “They’re investing in their future.” Andrews put it more plainly still. “The return on investment is priceless,” she said. “Supporting those who are aspiring to become self-sufficient and to reach their highest potential is the best investment one can make.”

Dempsey’s own advice to younger residents is warm and blunt at once. Look into college even if you don’t yet know what you want, she said, because “a lot of people come to college and they don’t know what they want to do, and then they find their passion.” And if college isn’t the path, find something else worth chasing. “Find your passion and chase it wholeheartedly. Don’t do nothing.”

Beyond Maryland

That drive already reaches past the DMV. This summer, Dempsey traveled to Sierra Leone with Public Health Beyond Borders, a student group she now co-leads, teaching schoolchildren about hand-washing, first aid and fire safety and touring local medical facilities to understand how they operate.

In 10 years, she hopes to be a practicing surgeon working in resource-poor settings around the world. She wants to “help build up their healthcare system so they can run on their own,” and, once she is able, give back to programs like the one that helped launch her.

For now, she is a sophomore with a full course load, a public-health club to run and, she admits, a new Hunger Games movie she is counting down to. But the throughline is steady: the girl who once felt at home in a hospital is working to make other people feel cared for, too. “I just want to be that help,” she said, “and that source of joy for others.”