Audio clip
CHA board meeting
Chattanooga Housing Authority officials have agreed to build 18 townhomes on Fairmount Avenue instead of the 36-unit apartment complex the authority previously wanted there.
Housing authority officials at their board meeting on Wednesday also thanked Mayor Ron Littlefield for his "positive cooperation" concerning the project.
In the past month, the housing authority has met with residents, the mayor, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the neighborhood association Friends of Fairmount to reach a compromise on the complex, CHA Vice President of Development Naveed Minhas said.
Mr. Minhas said he appreciates the "good synergy" among the residents, the authority and mayor's office representatives and he would like to keep that going as the housing authority moves forward on the project.
For the last few months Mr. Littlefield has berated the housing authority, calling its actions over the Fairmount complex "unprofessional" and describing it as "an embarrassment to our city."
Richard Beeland, the mayor's spokesman, said Wednesday that the mayor always has believed the Fairmount location is a good place for public housing, but that the authority needed to reduce the number of units to fit the neighborhood.
"Everyone worked together on this, and we're moving forward," Mr. Beeland said.
HUD's decision to fund the reduced number of townhomes enabled the housing authority to agree to the compromise, authority Board Chairman Eddie Holmes said.
The department had given the housing authority $4.2 million to build 36 units at Fairmount and housing officials had said that, if they changed the layout and number of units, HUD might take back the grant.
"HUD has agreed to allow us to go in with the 18 townhouses and keep the money," Mr. Holmes said. "We may have to return a portion, but it may be a small portion."
BY THE NUMBERS
18 -- Townhomes in the authority's new plan for Fairmount Avenue Apartments
36 -- Apartment units in the previous plan for the site
48 -- Apartment units originally planned
28 -- Existing Fairmount units to be torn down
$4.8 million -- Amount of original grant from HUD for CHA's 48- unit plan
$4.2 million -- Amount HUD gave after CHA reduced its plan to 36 units
On Wednesday, the housing authority board also approved a resolution stating the authority would make monthly reports to the department about its daily operations.
HUD demanded the agreement, which started this month and lasts for a year, after the housing authority scored only five of 35 points on a HUD review. Some areas of concern for HUD have been that the authority used more than $788,000 in Housing Choice voucher assistance funds and more than $1 million in Fannie Mae loan proceeds to cover operating expenses and the agency's lack of internal controls concerning CHA finances. The department called the CHA "a troubled agency."
However, housing authority officials said the agency has taken several steps in the past three years toward correcting its errors.
HUD officials also are expected to come to the housing authority to check on operations. The next such visit is scheduled in late March, said Betsy McCright, the authority's executive director.
Yolanda Putman has been a reporter at the Times Free Press for 11 years. She covers housing and previously covered education and crime. Yolanda is a Chattanooga native who has a master’s degree in communication from the University of Tennessee and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Alabama State University. She previously worked at the Lima (Ohio) News. She enjoys running, reading and writing and is the mother of one son, Tyreese. She has also ...
This is ludicrous. Sure build the town houses at the taxpayer's expense. Within the year after their occupation they will be the slums. Poverty is one thing, but filth and trash is yet another. The people who normally live in public housing have no respect for themselves, their living conditions or others but expect to be cared for by people who work and are bled dry by a corrupt socialist government ran and controlled by idiots. Get real - it isn't their money that is being spent but money they (local, state and federal governments) extort from the taxpayer to reward the deadbeats.
Your name alone let's me know that you live in some fantasy world if you believe the b/s you just wrote. So stereotypical of people like you to lump all residents of public housing in one group. Obviously, it would be a waste of my time to try to educate you so I won't.
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