Residents head into Patten Towers after being transported by bus from area hotels where they had been sheltered after a May 28 fire damaged the historic building.ABOUT THE WRITER
Gregory Perlman is the founder and CEO of GHC Housing Partners which owns 18,000 affordable housing units across the country. He is also the founder of the Perlman Foundation, an organization devoted to helping low-income residents through scholarships, health and wellness services and grants for food, clothing and shelter.
Last summer my company, GHC Housing Partners, purchased Patten Towers, a 100-year old building of great significance in the heart of the great city of Chattanooga.
Over the past nine months we have been focused on improving the quality of operations at the building with an eye towards improving the physical condition of the building and upgrading the social service platform.
On May 28 we experienced a fire that destroyed the entire electrical system. The emergency forced all 241 residents to be evacuated and relocated into temporary housing throughout the city. Since then we have been singularly focused on returning our displaced residents back to their homes.
Thankfully, on June 28 our residents were given permission from the fire marshal to move back into their homes. We deeply sympathize with the hardship and distress our residents endured but it is now time to think about the future. Time to determine what we did wrong, and what we can learn from in order to become a better citizen of Chattanooga.