Cook: Superior Creek Lodge situation is a crisis on top of a crisis

David Cook

The situation at Superior Creek Lodge is a crisis on top of a crisis.

"My goal is to make sure that place doesn't open back up," said Ben Strickland.

For 10 or so years, Strickland, his wife and two children lived at Superior Creek, the now-condemned extended-stay motel in East Ridge. For $220 a week they got a one-bedroom "suite," which Strickland describes as anything but.

A toilet that didn't work. Drug addicts in the hallways. The threat of being evicted even if you were only hours late on your rent. Or posted anything negative on Facebook. The place had a reputation so bad, the pizza man wouldn't deliver. And the mold?

"So thick it could grab you," Strickland said.

"Absolute slum," reads one review on TripAdvisor.com. "I would find a box and a bridge before I would ever stay there again."

"Drugs right out in the open," reads another. "Fights every day."

Two weeks ago, officials condemned the extended-stay motel. Along with 300 other families, the Stricklands had nowhere to go. (They slept on a friend's floor.)

For Strickland, 38, it was almost a blessing.

Rotten wood being torn at Superior Creek Lodge.

"Now people are homeless, but they don't have to deal with that crap anymore," he said.

I know what you're thinking: If Superior Creek was so detestable, why didn't Strickland pack up and leave a long time ago? Why would a family live in such a place?

Exactly.

"Once you're there, you're trapped. The rent is so high, you can't save up money to move out," he said. "Once you get in, you can't get out."

The Stricklands represent the crisis that working families face in this city. Extended-stay motels - with free phones and voice mail, laundry on site, doors that lock, micro-fridges - seem appealing. And with so few affordable options, even Superior Creek, somehow, becomes acceptable.

For these families, home isn't where the heart is.

Rotting wooden beams support walk ways of Superior Creek Lodge.

It's where the cheapest rent is.

"The real problem is that there is precious little affordable housing in Chattanooga," said Rebecca Whelchel, director of Metropolitan Ministries.

What happened at Superior Creek is blowback from an economic and planning policy that has neglected to take affordable housing seriously. Beyond Superior Creek, the larger decay is our city's emergency-level absence of affordable housing.

A recent study by Chattanooga Organized for Action shows our city lacks more than 5,700 affordable housing units for families earning $20,000 or less, and it's only going to get worse. On the horizon? The demolition of East Lake and College Hill Courts, two public housing projects.

All this is compounded by a third layer of decay: our unsupported public schools and lack of living-wage jobs.

Families can't earn enough money to live in humane housing.

Their kids go to schools that are underfunded.

The jobs they find don't pay enough money.

So the Stricklands - he's a gravedigger; she's a waitress who works a second job at a discount store - can barely support themselves, even with three jobs between them.

"The rent at Superior Creek is $220 a week," said Strickland. "My paycheck is between $450 and $500. And that's every two weeks."

A decent apartment that has enough room so his kids don't sleep on the couch? Near a good school? That is Strickland's American Dream. Most days, it's fantasy.

"By the time you pay a deposit and turn on the lights, you're looking at every bit of $1,600," said Strickland. "It would take us a year to save for that."

Last week, it happened nearly overnight.

Three days ago, the Stricklands moved into a new rental home. Rent is much cheaper, and it's in a better neighborhood, with a yard and washer-dryer hookup. Strickland said it's the happiest he's been in years.

He can thank Metropolitan Ministries. So can eight other families that also moved into permanent housing.

Since the Superior Creek condemnation, MetMin and the Salvation Army have been the first responders, offering rescue-like care, shelter and help. MetMin has paid out more than $30,000 to help find housing and shelter for more than 300 adults and children kicked out of Superior Creek. Much of that - $25,000 - came from an emergency grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga.

"I can call it home," he said.

The Stricklands are lucky. Most working class families in this city?

"There's nothing you can do," he said. "Trapped."

Contact David Cook at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook at DavidCookTFP.

All four buildings of Superior Creek Lodge were condemned by the city of East Ridge.