The Chattanooga Housing Authority is caught in the middle of the kind of bureaucratic situation only the federal government can engineer.
The public housing agency, as part of the federal Upward Mobility program, offers its newest sites for clients willing to work, volunteer or attend school at least 30 hours a week. In tailoring the new program toward its community, the CHA board voted to evict able-bodied residents ages 61 and younger at those sites if they went 90 days without meeting the aforementioned requirements.
But CHA wasn't aware of a 5-year-old notice issued by the Office of Public and Indian Housing that says public housing authorities "may not evict a family due to Community Service and Self-Sufficiency Requirement noncompliance."
So, the federal program, which seeks to foster goals in its Upward Mobility program like "increasing families' earnings" and "expanding employment opportunities," essentially hampers the local agency from pushing people to achieve those goals by severely lowering the responsibility side of the ledger.
Fortunately, it appears CHA at least will be able to add a little bit of carrot to the carrot-on-a-stick approach. If tenants are noncompliant, they will be offered a chance to move from the newer site to a family public housing site, Then, if they refuse the move, they can be evicted for violating the administrative transfer policy.
"We don't get up trying to put people out of this program," Betsy McCright, executive director of CHA, said. Yet, "we have to open those units up to people who are ready and willing to go to work and to participate fully in the program."
Five tenants of the 100 to 110 Upward Mobility clients were noncompliant in February, according to the CHA.
"We can't let you continue to stay here when you don't live up to your obligation," CHA board chairman Eddie Holmes said.
Going forward, it will be important that the agency follow through with its plans once clients are noncompliant. The move to a less desired site, after all, will have the effect of shifting some clients back into an energetic attempt to fulfill the responsibilities to get back into the program.
Unfortunately, if housing is available no matter what, it will have the effect on other clients of lessening the incentive to work, volunteer or attend school.
The lack of responsibility is the fallacy of many federal government programs and one reason why many remain stuck in the cycle of poverty.