The plea was straightforward. And Jon Berestecky with the Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition got right to the point as he addressed the Hamilton County Commission last Wednesday.
“I’m before you all today to let you know that we have a very serious and potentially dangerous situation looming ahead for many of our neighbors — residents of Hamilton County, who were displaced from the Budgetel when it was closed on Nov. 16.
“I was on the ground that morning as residents, some who had been there as long as two years, were told they only had a few hours to pack their belongings and find someplace else to live. Some were on disability, and paid their rent each month when their check came in. Many worked within walking distance, earning money each week to make sure their family could keep a roof over their head. Some were on hospice. Some paid their rent two or three weeks in advance. None have received a refund.
“There was no way that these residents could just scrape together enough cash for a deposit for rent or hotel fees and find somewhere else to live by the end of that day. The reality was at the end of that day, there were 170 adults 108 children and 42 pets standing in front of us with desperate looks on their faces and with nowhere to go,” Berestecky continued.
“Nobody — not the Homeless Coalition nor any of our providers — had cash on hand to deal with a housing crisis of this magnitude. So we set up an emergency fundraising campaign to pay for new hotels for those in need.
“And the people of our county rose to the occasion to the tune of $100,000.
“But paying for 121 hotel rooms in two-week increments is expensive. And we the homeless service providers of our community are just about out of funds. Without an immediate and significant influx of cash, many of these families, these children will be on the street one week from today.
“Let me be clear, this is not exaggeration. This is a crisis. … I’m imploring all of us in the room today, to use whatever means are available to us to be part of the only decent and humane course of action ahead of us and that is keeping our neighbors safe and sheltered. Long enough for our brave homeless service workers to help them find permanent housing solutions in our community.”
Berestecky had waited more than two hours to address our 11 commissioners — more than two hours, while they prattled through two handfuls of resolutions, pausing occasionally to bat around comments about procurement policy, legal fees incurred by the county attorney that were more expensive than what is allowed by that current procurement policy. They questioned why the finance director didn’t catch the misstep before. They asked who tipped off the auditor and why a temporary handicapped access ramp for the courthouse Christmas tree lighting was “a bump in the road.”
In the end, the commissioners seemed to blame pretty much everybody in the room for everything — except the county attorney, whose job it was.
But what was the most telling thing about this bunch and their reaction to Berestecky’s message?
After Berestecky’s poignant plea for help and his perfect verbal portrait of 278 desperate people ousted from the only home they had one week before Thanksgiving — after his bracing warning that these “neighbors” are about to be ousted again about just before Christmas — our commissioners had nothing to say.
Nothing.
Commission Chair Chip Baker looked at Berestecky, the one and only member of the public to address them, and dismissed him: “Thank you, sir.”
Then casting his eyes over those on the dais and out in the audience, Baker said quickly, “Anyone else? All right. We will be in recess until December 14th at 9:30 a.m.”
And with that, the meeting was ended.
The crisis isn’t ended. In fact, before the commission meets again on Wednesday this week, these families and children and pets will very likely be homeless again.
Our community has already helped once, and hopefully will help again.
The City of Chattanooga has helped, coordinating with the Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition.
The City of East Ridge has not helped, opting instead to ask its police department to seek the court order closing the Budgetel for alleged crime and nuisance. East Ridge didn’t ask authorities to put out only those causing problems. Rather, that city sought a court order to remove everyone. It seems the property where the hotel sits is quickly rising in value where it sits near a new soccer stadium. The Budgetel and its land at 1410 N. Mack Smith Road was assessed at $740,000 in 1999, $1.4 million in 2016 and $1.83 million in 2022.
Based on last week’s inane meeting, it seems a fair bet that the Hamilton County Commission won’t help either.