The Chattanooga Housing Authority received 5,100 applications for 200 Housing Choice vouchers Friday, the deadline for hand-delivered voucher applications.
The number of applicants is expected to increase Monday when CHA receives the last of mailed applications, said Tammie Reeves, Housing Choice Voucher director. All mailed applications must be postmarked by Oct. 15.
The Housing Choice Voucher program, formerly called Section 8, allows low-income residents to receive financial assistance for rent payments on a single-family home or apartment.
The response underscores what housing experts have long argued, according to CHA board Chairman Eddie Holmes.
“There’s not enough housing for folks who need it,” he said.
Chattanooga must find a way to improve its public school system so students can graduate with the skills or knowledge to earn a livable wage, he said. Without the ability to earn a livable wage, people cannot afford quality housing, he said.
This month marked the first time in two years that CHA has taken new applications for its Housing Choice Voucher program. Housing officials will host a lottery drawing at 10 a.m. Oct. 29 to award the 200 vouchers available. Applicants do not have to be present to win.
“This gives everybody a fair chance,” Reeves said. “Before, unless you were able-bodied and able to stand for hours, you didn’t have a good chance for getting a voucher because you couldn’t be there first.”
Reeves said CHA officials will put information from applications onto a spread sheet so applications will be organized alphabetically by the time of the lottery drawing.
The lottery results will be available at www.chahousing.org, at all CHA Public Housing Communities and by calling United Way’s 211.
WHAT’S NEXT
Chattanooga Housing Authority officials will have a lottery drawing at 10 a.m. Oct. 29 to award 200 vouchers available for residents to use for housing.