As part of a plan to change the makeup of public housing, Chattanooga Housing Authority officials want to demolish the Edward F. Steiner Apartments and create a work force housing community within the next two years.
"To operate public housing the way we have in the past is no longer doable," said Eddie Holmes, CHA's board chairman. "We're trying to teach residents to move up (and out of public housing)."
The Chattanooga Housing Authority had 3,692 public housing units in 1999. By 2010, that number has decreased by more than 500 units to 3,183.
And, though CHA still offers lower rents to unemployed residents, first preference when selecting residents for newer units goes to people with jobs, housing officials said. The only exceptions are for the elderly age 62 and older and those with disabilities, officials said.
"Public housing is changing from being a concentration of the very poor to a mixed-income community," Mr. Holmes said.
That's the plan for the new Steiner Apartments, to be built at the current site off North Chamberlain Avenue. If the plan is approved, instead of having 50 units of public housing, the complex will include 48 units with more amenities, including central heat and air.
FOR MORE INFOThe Chattanooga Housing Authority Board of Commissioners is expected to discuss plans for the Steiner Apartments at its next board meeting at 12:30 p.m. on April 27.
Twenty-four units will be allocated for public housing. The remaining 24 units will be called work force housing, and first preference will be given to people with jobs, either full time or part time, Mr. Holmes said.
"There are a larger number of people working and can't make it," Mr. Holmes said. "They are people who are trying to do the right thing, and we're trying to provide help."
A newly redesigned Steiner Apartments would be the fourth work force housing community that CHA has created. Other former public housing sites that have been transformed into mixed-income communities include the Villages at Alton Park, Greenwood Terrace Apartments and the Oaks at Camden.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and CHA's board of commissioners will have final say, but housing authority officials say they want to use the same guidelines for at least half of the residents at the new Steiner as they use for The Oaks at Camden, where CHA also gives first preference to people with jobs when selecting residents.
"We have an upward mobility criteria," said Naveed Minhas, CHA's vice president of development. "It will be geared toward individuals who are working and want to move up in life, people who have a good record and have made an effort to improve their life."
CHA officials say the 40-year-old Steiner apartments have structural deficiencies and do not have central heat and air.
If the Tennessee Housing Development Agency awards $4 million in tax credits, demolition on the site is scheduled to begin in the early part of 2011. Steiner residents will get notification about relocation in the fall of this year, Mr. Minhas said.
Brittany Clay, 22, a single mother of four, is concerned that she may not be selected to return after Steiner has been rebuilt because she is unemployed. She said the change toward prodding residents to work is coming too fast.
"Right now, it's hard to find a job," she said. With children ranging from 7 months to 6 years old, finding child care is a problem when she needs to look for work, she said.
About 25 percent of 50 families at Steiner are headed by unemployed heads of household, CHA figures show. About 50 percent of the residents already are working and another 25 percent are elderly or disabled.
Avondale resident James Moreland said the new project will be good for the community.
"It won't look like a housing project. It will be more community friendly," he said. "Look at what it's (the new development) done on Camden Street. They give the community a better image."
Evelyn Strickland, 65, lives in one of the 57 units at the Oaks at Camden. After coming from an apartment in Battery Heights that was too small to have a handicap-accessible bathroom, she said she appreciates the apartment amenities at the Oaks.
"I got a washer and dryer, two handicap-accessible bathrooms. Honey, I love where I live," she said.
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