Betsy McCright, executive director of the Chattanooga Housing Authority, fields a question from a Westside resident supporter during a meeting at Renaissance Presbyterian Church on Thursday. Westside residents and supporters gathered at the church on Thursday to attend a question-and-answer session with McCright and Doug Wrinn, director of asset manager.Chattanooga Housing Authority officials don’t know what the future holds for their three largest and oldest public housing sites, but CHA Executive Director Betsy McCright says the housing agency wants to put the minds of seniors at ease.
No CHA-owned senior housing site on the Westside will be destroyed even if a proposed mixed-income housing revitalization plan comes to the community, she said last week in an interview.
But emotions are running so high over the possible mixed-income proposal that even positive news has a hard time being heard.
McCright has been visiting all of CHA’s senior sites to deliver news concerning its possible purchase of Dogwood Manor – the one senior housing site on the Westside not owned by CHA – and to ease seniors’ concerns in public housing about being put out of their homes.
“The message to Westside residents is we’re trying to expand our public housing portfolio by acquiring that building,” said McCright. “We may not be the one who gets the award, but we’re in the running.”