A day after Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke announced a new plan to address homelessness, Samantha Strader and Shanairia Gaines celebrated how a single, $350 gift solved the housing crisis Gaines and her three children faced in April.
Strader is a graduate of Vanderbilt who provides family counseling for Families First, a state temporary assistance program that seeks to help adults in struggling families find employment. Gaines is a young mother of three who dropped out of high school when learning disabilities created a barrier to continuing her education.
For her 33rd birthday on March 22, Gaines was given an eviction notice from the house she was renting using a Section 8 voucher. The home was infested with rats and the owner said Gaines would have to leave for repairs to be done. By the end of April, Gaines and her children were living day by day with relatives or in a hotel room paid for by her church while Gaines searched for housing that would accept her voucher. Section 8 is a federal program designed to help lower-income individuals afford housing and is administered by the Chattanooga Housing Authority.
“It wasn’t a happy birthday,” Gaines said.
Strader said Gaines was wrongly accused of causing the rat infestation and was forced to seek renewal of her voucher at a hearing at the Chattanooga Housing Authority.