“You’ve got to ask yourself. What is reality?”
This is John Hayes talking, and no, we’re not listening to Grateful Dead bootlegs. We’re discussing Purpose Built communities and the promise — or threat — their influence holds over two public housing neighborhoods in Chattanooga: College Hill Courts and Harriet Tubman.
Hayes, a man with decades of urban development experience, believes reality is this: Our city’s housing crisis is only going to get worse, and Purpose Built could help orchestrate turning low-income neighborhoods into mixed-income communities with businesses, grocery stores and good schools.
“We cannot afford to sit back and wait,” he said.
For some, reality hurts. Nearly 2,000 people in Chattanooga are on the waiting list for public housing while apartments needing repair sit unused and empty in College Hill right now, boarded up with plywood.