How to apply
* What: Chattanooga Housing Authority's Housing Choice Voucher waiting list opens * Where: Applications are accepted online only. * When: Applications may be submitted starting at 12 a.m. Monday. * For more information: Visit the Chattanooga Housing Authority's website at chahousing.org.
The Chattanooga Housing Authority is opening its Housing Choice Voucher Program waiting list Monday for the first time in four years.
But, while thousands of people need housing, CHA will select only 1,000 applications to form its waiting list for vouchers. And even those who get vouchers may not find landlords willing to accept them. CHA said in 2014 that only a third of people who receive Housing Choice vouchers find a home.
Online applications will be taken from starting immediately after midnight Monday to just before midnight Tuesday. The applications take two minutes to complete, said CHA Executive Director Betsy McCright. People can apply from their smartphones, iPad or home computers.
The housing agency will open its central office computer room from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday. The room includes 20 computers and it will be staffed with people assisting with applications. CHA computer labs at Greenwood Terrace and East Lake Courts also will be available. Computers also are available at the Chattanooga Public Library.
Valerie Roush, a 55-year-old widow, lived in a home for seven years with no electricity, running water or heat. She lived off and on with family members in other states after that.
I'd like to have a place to stay that I don't have to get out of," said Roush. "I need some peace."
Roush has no computer at home and said she plans to apply at the CHA office.
After 1,000 applications are chosen for the waiting list, the remainder will be discarded and applicants not chosen must reapply. Because the drawing is random, it doesn't matter in what order applications are received.
CHA will post applicants selected to be on the waiting list online on Feb. 2 and start pulling names from the list to receive vouchers around the second week in February. CHA anticipates that it will take 18 months to exhaust the waiting list and reopen it.
The need for affordable housing in Chattanooga is tremendous.
Valerie Brown, who teaches a housing class for Catholic Charities, said about 10 people a month come through her class with housing choice vouchers, but hardly any find landlords to accept them, even with her assistance.
"It's wonderful that they're opening the voucher program up to give more people opportunity to have housing, but the question is if they're going to have landlords to accept the vouchers," she said.
In Chattanooga, more than 77 percent of people with incomes less than $20,000 and 51 percent of households with incomes between $20,000 to $34,999 are spending beyond their means for housing, according to a Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency housing study.
The study, revised in July 2013, said Chattanooga needs more than 4,000 affordable rental units for low-income people.
Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 757-6431.