WESTSIDE’S NEXT STEP

Sixty years ago, many minority residents of Chattanooga lost their homes as interstate highways were completed in and around downtown.

In the past 20 years, more than 600 units of public housing have been razed — the 188-unit Maurice Poss Homes in 2005 and the 440-unit Harriet Tubman Homes in 2014 — forcing 1,000 or more mostly minority residents to find new homes.

Throughout those years, minorities and others renting non-public housing homes around downtown Chattanooga have had to seek new quarters as owners decided to redevelop their properties and get more of a market-rate return on their investment.

So when the Chattanooga Housing Authority (CHA) and its partners began to seek solutions for the rapidly deteriorating College Hill Courts a half decade ago, they were determined it would be with the full support and input of the largely minority residents who would be affected.

After months of surveying and listening and planning and more listening, they declared that any resident of the Westside public housing complex who wanted to live in a new unit once built could do so and that anyone who had to move while the new units were being constructed was guaranteed to have a spot once the new units were completed.

Not only that, they said later, moving expenses both ways and a number of other expenses for those displaced would be covered.

The promises were made clear in literature about the Westside Evolves plan and repeated in every public meeting where the issue was discussed.

Still, when it came to some Chattanooga City Council members’ trust in what was said, given years of broken promises about minority housing, and, frankly, in some cases, their lack of understanding about the situation, it was as if the promises had never been made.

How many people, they demanded to know, still want to move back to the Westside once those homes were rebuilt, especially with the high-dollar, relatively unconnected Bend project being developed just across Riverfront Parkway?

It was a reasonable question since such a number hadn’t been reported since the CHA updated the Westside Evolves plans in 2020.

However, CHA officials didn’t bat an eye, didn’t argue, didn’t explain again what they had promised over and over, but went right to work with an updated survey.

Now that survey is back, but no one from CHA and its partners is saying “I told you so.”

Instead, they’re hoping the updated survey gives council members the confidence they need to vote for a resolution that will allow CHA to apply for a $50 million federal grant toward the replacement project.

The survey revealed that 82% of residents of both College Hill Courts and Gateway Tower who took the survey want to live in a new unit on the Westside. It was no random survey, either. Although the survey fell just short of its goal of 75% of residents of College Hill Courts responding (with contacts to non-responsive households a minimum of five times), respondents exceeded 75% of Gateway Tower residents.

The questionnaire also asked if residents wanted to stay during construction. A healthy majority of Gateway Tower residents said yes, but a slight majority of College Hill Courts residents said no.

Based on that survey, the president of the Atlanta-based company redeveloping the site assured residents who want to stay that they will be able to do so.

She was able to make that statement in part because as units currently are being vacated (51 currently vacant and 10 offline), they’re being kept offline to ensure enough room will be available for relocations once construction starts.

Beyond that, the public housing development is nowhere near full capacity (497) since buildings without firewalls are not being used. One such building, officials said, may be renovated as is needed during the transition.

The survey also noted positively that 88% of Gateway Tower residents and 65% of College Hill Courts residents want to work on a pathway to homeownership. That, of course, always has been the goal of public housing — not to be a permanent dwelling but a subsidized, temporary stop. We hope that pathway becomes an important cog in the redevelopment process.

In addition, the online survey results brochure for the first time revealed proposed construction-start and construction-completed times for the development. They range from site prep work for the first two units beginning Aug. 1, 2024, construction beginning Oct. 28, 2024, and completion on April 21, 2026. Work on the first phase of the development — on sites controlled by CHA and the city — would continue through 2032.

Future development phases are expected to go until 2036 and beyond, depending on need.

All of the work, quite naturally, is dependent upon financing. We hope, going forward, there will be cohesion among elected officials on the project as there has been between development collaborators and residents from the start and that — despite what has happened over the past 60 years — promises made will be promises kept.