Single, mentally ill mom taking care of her disabled brother applies for housing voucher

Thousands in Chattanooga applied for housing vouchers

Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 3/27/17. Felicia Townsend speaks about her need to apply for a Chattanooga Housing Authority housing voucher while at the Chattanooga Community Kitchen on Monday, March 27, 2017.
Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 3/27/17. Felicia Townsend speaks about her need to apply for a Chattanooga Housing Authority housing voucher while at the Chattanooga Community Kitchen on Monday, March 27, 2017.

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The Chattanooga Housing Authority’s list of 1,000 randomly selected Housing Choice Voucher Program applicants will be posted on the agency’s website by noon April 3. Go to www.chahousing.org.

Felicia Townsend enters into relationships with men to house herself and offer help to her disabled brother, but she and her brother long for a better life.

"Being with somebody because I don't want to be on the street ... It brings degradation to my soul," she said this week after talking with her brother at the Chattanooga Community Kitchen.

Townsend was one of thousands of people applying Monday for the Chattanooga Housing Authority's Housing Choice Voucher Program. The housing agency accepted voucher applications by computer only, and it accepted applications for only one day. By 11:59 p.m. Monday, the application process closed.

It was the first time the housing authority had accepted voucher applications since October 2015, when 3,710 people applied for the housing assistance.

Applicants who are accepted have an opportunity to get financial assistance from the federal government to pay for housing. A Housing Choice Voucher allows a person to find a home and pay only a third of his income for rent, while the federal government pays the remaining portion.

People with no income must pay $50 a month for rent.

"I can handle that," said Townsend.

The 41-year-old mother of two minor children has no income. Her family members house her children. She's been denied three times for disability, even though she's been taking medication for being bipolar and schizophrenic for 10 years. She ate lunch with her brother Monday at the Chattanooga Community Kitchen before checking with her Joe Johnson Mental Health Center case manager about applying for a Housing Choice Voucher.

Her brother, Jeremiah Townsend, suffered a traumatic brain injury after being shot in the head at age 14 while living near the defunct Harriet Tubman public housing development. He has an obvious speech impediment and has some income for his disability, but it's not enough for housing, Felicia Townsend said. He also needs support services since he is paralyzed and has to drag his right leg to walk.

Felicia Townsend said life has been hard for her, a single, mentally ill woman, but it's even harder for her 34-year-old homeless, disabled brother.

The sound of light chatter spilled from the Chattanooga Housing Authority computer lab as agency staff worked one-on-one with applicants to apply for housing. Relocation specialist Brandee Johnson-Williams assisted Melissa Greene, a 31-year-old mother of three hoping to secure a three-bedroom home in Brainerd for herself and the children.

"It would be great to have a house of my own," she said.

For the past three years she's shared a single bedroom with her three children while living with a friend, Greene said.

By 11:30 a.m. Monday, more than 2,132 people had already applied for the Housing Choice Voucher Program, program director Tammie Carpenter said. Only 1,000 of them will be randomly selected by the housing authority's computer. Selected applicants will be posted on the Chattanooga Housing Authority's website on April 3.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a full-time worker in Chattanooga must earn at least $11.85 an hour to afford a typical one-bedroom apartment with an average monthly lease rate of $616.

About $14.75 an hour is needed for the typical two-bedroom apartment where rent is an average $767 a month.

Yet Tennessee leads the nation for minimum wage workers, according to a 2014 report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. About 7.4 percent of Tennessee's workforce then earned at or below the minimum wage, the highest portion of minimum wage workers in the country, according to The Tennessean.

In Chattanooga, minimum wage now is $7.25 an hour, a wage that is less than half the amount needed for a typical two-bedroom apartment.

At least 600 people a night are homeless in Chattanooga and sleep on streets or in shelters, said Jens Christensen, executive director of the Chattanooga Community Kitchen.

For Felicia Townsend and her brother, having their own homes means safety and security.

"It'll be great," she said. "I'll have my children with me, maybe get a stable job. But when you're going from pillar to post, you just live off the mercy of people, so at any second I could be out here sleeping on the curb."

Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.

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