The former Harriet Tubman Homes site in East Chattanooga is seen from Missionary Ridge.Kudos to an East Chattanooga group for asking federal prosecutors to investigate the Chattanooga Housing Authority for a Harriet Tubman housing site bidding process that for two years has failed to sell the city’s second-largest public housing site.
Frankly, though, this huge mess smells more like lost opportunities than illegalities. And it smells most like lost jobs in a community that sorely needs them.
The People’s Coalition for Affordable Housing last week asked the U.S. Attorney General’s Office to scrutinize “apparently irregular and illegal methods” of trying to sell the 36-acre ghost town where boarded-up brick buildings once housed 440 families.
Perrin Lance, president of Chattanooga Organized for Action, called the Housing Authority’s methods “not transparent” and “secretive.” “Someone outside needs to come in and look at this and make sure everybody is playing by the rules,” Perrin said.
Early this year, the Chattanooga Times Free Press uncovered documents and interviews that suggest CHA ignored the highest bids, required exhaustive documentation from some buyers but not others, and ultimately failed to sell the complex to any of the half-dozen interested parties — all while its executive director said publicly there were no solid offers.