Construction of Fairmount Avenue Apartments continues. Chattanooga Housing Authority officials expect residents to be positioned to move out in five years.
Ellis Jones, a public housing resident for four years and father of five children, hopes to move out of his house on Juniper Street and into the Fairmount Avenue apartments once the housing is complete. The apartments are available for those with intentions to move out in five years.Fairmount Apartments in North Chattanooga might become the country’s first public housing complex where all tenants who are not elderly or disabled will be required to have jobs and also agree to leave the complex within five years.
Officials with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development office in Atlanta could not recall another public housing site with a closed-end rental agreement.
While it might be the first in the country, it’s definitely the first for the Chattanooga Housing Authority, which runs Fairmount Apartments.
“I know we’re going to push the envelope because it’s out of the norm for housing authorities to do that, but we’re making a commitment to prepare people to move out into self-sufficiency,” said Eddie Holmes, CHA board chairman.
As part of the application process, potential renters will be asked to sign an agreement that they’ll be self-sufficient – and out of the complex – in five years. If they can’t meet that goal, they must leave Fairmount, although they might be able to move into other CHA housing.