Betsy McCright, executive director of the Chattanooga Housing AuthorityPeople moving into the Council for Alcohol & Drug Abuse Services' new $2.5 million North Shore complex next spring will get assistance with rent.
At its April 20 board meeting this month, Chattanooga Housing Authority officials approved 24 Housing Choice vouchers for the upcoming apartments on the CADAS campus at Manning and Minor streets. The vouchers will assist low-income tenants who intend to be alcohol and drug free.
It's difficult for recovering addicts to find housing because some have criminal records that make passing background checks a challenge, said David "Boomer" Brown, director of transitional housing for CADAS.
The housing vouchers will solve that problem for some tenants, Brown said.
CHA Executive Director Betsy McCright said awarding the vouchers to CADAS assists the housing authority in its goal to fill the unmet needs of various populations.
"Our aim is to serve populations where there are gaps in housing, and so, through our project voucher program, this will be one way of helping people who have alcohol and drug addictions or who are in recovery," she said.
McCright said the housing authority has a 20-year history with assisting CADAS housing when it started providing vouchers to homeless women with children in recovery.
CADAS will provide support services such as relapse prevention and life skills to tenants.
The 12,000-square-foot apartment project is funded in part by grants from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati and the Tennessee Housing Development Agency. Pinnacle Financial Partners is providing a loan for the project.
Brown won't start a waiting list for the vouchers until the apartment complex is near completion. Housing officials said the building must pass a housing authority inspection before Housing Choice voucher tenants live there.
The vouchers stay with the site. But if a tenant lives at the site for a year and is in good standing with CADAS, he may get a mobile voucher to assist him in getting housing anywhere in the U.S.
The only CADAS requirement for the housing is that tenants be alcohol and drug free, Brown said.
Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfree press.com or call 423-757-6431.