Officials from the city of Chattanooga and other public and private partners on Wednesday marked the opening of Shallowford Pointe, a new affordable housing community in East Chattanooga.
The project was developed by DGA Residential, a division of Knoxville-based Dominion that’s focused on affordable housing development and management.
“Throughout the Southeast and in Chattanooga, affordable housing has become an absolute, critical social need, and so we are just delighted to be able to open this community today and help solve some of that need,” Mark Taylor, CEO of Dominion, said Wednesday at a ribbon-cutting for the complex.
Shallowford Pointe is DGA Residential’s first affordable housing complex in the city, where parent company Dominion owns an older adult living community in Hixson and market rate residential developments, Craig Cobb, president of development for DGA Residential, said at the event.
96-unit affordable housing complex opens in Chattanooga
The development includes 96 units, with 48 two-bedroom and 48 three-bedroom units, designed for people who make up to $65,000-$75,000 annually, he said.
Located near amenities including the Chattanooga Veterans Affairs Clinic, Amazon and Volkswagen, the community features a fitness room, a computer lab, a playground, energy-efficient units and a flex space for meetings, Cobb said.
Betsy McCright, executive director of the Chattanooga Housing Authority, said at the event that the authority is a codeveloper of the property, in which it has an ownership interest of 20%.
“Developing affordable housing is never the work of one organization,” she said. “It takes public, private and nonprofit folks working together toward a shared goal.”
The authority is providing 96 project-based vouchers — federal subsidies tied to qualified housing units available to eligible low-income families — to the development, McCright said.
To qualify for a project-based voucher, applicants can have incomes of up to 60% of the area median income, which in Chattanooga is $57,300 for a family of four or $61,920 for a family of five, a press release said.
“The location here in one of the hottest, growing areas of Chattanooga, the proximity to the mall – it’s fantastic,” Mayor Tim Kelly said of the complex at the event. “And the fact that working families will be able to afford these places, it’s great.”
Contact business reporter Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6508.