The former Harriet Tubman Homes site in East Chattanooga, seen here from Missionary Ridge, was built in 1953.In the latest attempt to purchase the dilapidated Harriet Tubman housing site, Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke on Friday offered housing officials $1 million along with a 20-acre site that Howard School supporters had hoped one day would be home to their new athletic complex.
Berke called his second offer to the Chattanooga Housing Authority a “unique opportunity,” returning to CHA the former Maurice Poss Homes property that the city had acquired just two years ago in a swap for another piece of property. Berke withdrew his original offer to purchase the 36.5-acre Tubman public housing site in late September 2013.
During talks last year with the authority, Berke said housing officials had expressed interest in the Poss Homes property to use for a future housing project. But at the time, Berke already had offered that property to the Hamilton County Schools.
Officials learned in the fall that the city had failed to pay more than $11 million it owed in liquor-by-the-drink taxes to the county schools system. Berke moved to start paying the taxes this year and to give the school system the Poss site, which has long been eyed as the future home for a replacement Howard athletic complex.
Berke also designated $500,000 to help start an early childhood center, but didn’t commit to fully repay the $11.4 million the school system lost out on over the course of nearly a decade.