NAACP opposes CHA land sale

The local branch of the NAACP has asked federal officials to deny the Chattanooga Housing Authority approval to sell a portion of its Maurice Poss Homes site.

The NAACP also passed a resolution calling for the Hamilton County Commission and county Board of Education to buy the land instead.

The Maurice Poss Homes site sits across the street from the Howard School of Academics and Technology and had been mentioned as a possible site for a new track and football stadium, something the NAACP favors.

"We don't need any more low-income housing built next to a school," said Joe Rowe, first vice president of the Chattanooga Hamilton County branch of the NAACP. "That's a recipe for disaster."

The CHA approved selling the front 10 acres of the 20-acre site to Vernon Place Investments at a special meeting in February. The land, which has been vacant for at least five years, sold for $1 million, but the sale is contingent upon approval from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said CHA board Chairman Eddie Holmes.

According to CHA, the developer plans to put 86 units of affordable housing on the site if it is approved for tax credits by the Tennessee Housing Development Agency.

The NAACP sent a letter to HUD dated March 21, asking the agency to deny approval.

"To put that many low-income people together breeds trouble and crime," Rowe said Wednesday. "The whole United States is trying to get away from that except for Chattanooga."

In March, NAACP officials also asked that the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights amend its complaint against the Hamilton County school system filed in May 2010. The NAACP asked for the complaint to include its resolution asking the County Commission and Board of Education to purchase the front 10 acres of property and build an athletic facility on it.

The NAACP's initial complaint accused the school system of discriminating against schools with majority black populations by allowing them to have substandard facilities while making "great expenditures" in "suburban white areas."

Warren Mackey, a member of the County Commission, which allocates local funds for the school system, said he wants to speak with Chattanooga Housing Authority officials, asking again for them to consider swapping the Maurice Poss property for another county- or city-owned property. Like the NAACP, he wants the Poss site for a football field and track for Howard.

"The school is in real need of a new track field," said Rowe. "They've needed one for some time and that's the most perfect location for it."

A new track would address some of the "longstanding wrongs" against the school, including "low morale much due to lack of providing adequacy by the school system," according to the NAACP's resolution.

Mackey said he doesn't think he can get enough commissioners to support outright buying the Poss property.

"Obviously, we're in tough economic times and we're having to cut positions," he said. "My thinking is that the commission right now would not be amenable to trying to purchase land and add responsibility at a time when tax revenue is down, sales taxes are down, property taxes are down."

Mackey said a land swap would be more feasible, and the CHA has had discussions with the Hamilton County school system officials about just such a swap. But officials never could agree on a suitable property to be traded for the Poss Homes site.

Holmes said the CHA's position is that, even with the sale of half of the Poss Homes site to Vernon Place Investments, the land that Howard school wants for a track and stadium still is available for a suitable land swap or purchase.

"Howard never requested the front of the property," Holmes said. "The property that Howard initially requested is still available."

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