Chattanooga City Council OKs application for $2.6 million homeless grant

Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / The site of a former homeless camp, on East 11th Street, sits empty on June 19, 2022. City officials worked to close the site and rehouse some of its residents over safety concerns from the railroad. Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / The site of a former homeless camp, on East 11th Street, sits empty on June 19, 2022. City officials worked to close the site and rehouse some of its residents over safety concerns from the railroad.

By David Floyd September 13, 2022 3 min read

The Chattanooga City Council has authorized municipal staff to apply for more than $2.6 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to fund transitional housing, rapid rehousing and support services for medically vulnerable people and families struggling with homelessness.

The panel unanimously approved the resolution during its meeting Tuesday evening, allowing the administrator for the Department of Community Development to submit an application. The funding would last about three years.

“It really is kind of a collaboration between a lot of different agencies to meet a really prominent need that we have in our community,” Sam Wolfe, director of the city’s Office of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, said by phone Tuesday.

The one-time funding opportunity would help the city and its partners house people in need of longer-term medical rehabilitation, which can be complicated when someone doesn’t have stable shelter. Wolfe said their lack of housing often prevents them from scheduling medical procedures because they don’t have a safe place to recover.