Partnership, Chattanooga Housing Authority provide housing to domestic violence survivors

Carmen Hutson, Director of the Crisis Resource Center, left, speaks to Tirana Tazewell, the centerճ New Vision Supervisor, about a program that will allow homeless women and domestic violence survivors to acquire permanent housing within a year. The program is being organized by The Partnership for Families, Children & Adults along with the Chattanooga Housing Authority and every woman who completes the one year program will get a Section 8 voucher that will help fund her permanent housing.
Carmen Hutson, Director of the Crisis Resource Center, left, speaks to Tirana Tazewell, the centerճ New Vision Supervisor, about a program that will allow homeless women and domestic violence survivors to acquire permanent housing within a year. The program is being organized by The Partnership for Families, Children & Adults along with the Chattanooga Housing Authority and every woman who completes the one year program will get a Section 8 voucher that will help fund her permanent housing.

A new deal between the Chattanooga Housing Authority and the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults provides housing for women who have been victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

The new program replaces the Partnership's Single Room Occupancy (SRO) program that provides sheltered housing and counseling services for chronically homeless women.

HUD funding for that initiative ends at the end of the year. The new program is expected to start sometime between October and December, and can lead to long-term, stable housing for women starting new lives.

When Carmen Hutson, the Partnership's director of crisis services, recently told SRO participants eligible for the new program about the possibility of getting housing vouchers, they cried, she said.

"Not only are they (the women) getting back on their feet, they're going to have opportunity to afford their housing," said Hutson.

The housing authority board this month voted to give 20 project-based vouchers to the Partnership to pay for shelter beds for the new program.

"We do not want to see a refuge for domestic violence go away," said housing authority Executive Director Betsy McCright

Women who have escaped domestic or sexual violence will be able to stay in the shelter for a year while they receive counseling including domestic services, job readiness and budgeting. The CHA voucher funding will be tied to the shelter beds, so as some women leave the program, new ones can come in.

Meanwhile, those women who complete a full year of counseling at the shelter get what McCright calls "the golden ticket" - a HUD Housing Choice voucher they may use anywhere to help them secure housing.

Hutson said some women in the SRO program must live apart from their children while they're at the shelter. Many couldn't afford housing if they left the Partnership. A housing voucher could provide a home and allow families to be together, said Hutson.

It's a struggle to find affordable, safe and decent housing for people with few financial resources, said Regina McDevitt, senior director for the Partnership.

Even women who get jobs often don't earn enough to afford housing without assistance, she said.

According to the Living Wage calculator for Hamilton County, a living wage for an adult with one child is $20.01 an hour.

HUD funded the Partnership's Single Room Occupancy program for 10 years in hopes of decreasing chronic homelessness.

A 2013 report by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness states that Chattanooga experienced an 89 percent drop in chronic homelessness from 2007 to 2011.

Stephen Wright, executive director of the Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition, said the coalition's annual Point in Time count also shows reductions in chronic homelessness for at least the past five years.

But domestic violence in Chattanooga is slightly increasing, according to a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation report released in June.

One domestic violence survivor who works at the center said she wished the vouchers were available when her children were younger.

She traveled for nearly a decade from shelter to shelter across the East Coast, running from the abusive ex-husband who broke her bones so badly doctors had to use plates to put them back together.

Her children grew up in shelters, said the woman, who asked that her name not be used. But they could have had more stability with this program, she said.

"Had there been a program in place, we could have settled down and had our own home instead of moving from place to place," she said.

Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 757-6431.

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