This group project by residents of the Emma Wheeler Homes is part of a display of artwork done by public housing residents on display at the Chattanooga Housing Authority offices on Holtzclaw Avenue in Chattanooga.Disproportionately high levels of poverty and crime plague public housing sites nationwide, but this summer the Chattanooga Housing Authority exposed its residents to more positive possibilities.
“We tried to step it up a bit,” said Brandon Bacon, the authority’s service coordinator.
Dozens of youths and seniors in public housing visited the Creative Discovery Museum, toured the Hunter Museum of American Art, created glass fixtures at iGNiS Glass and listened to Booker T. Scruggs and his band play jazz this summer. They learned about electricity from EPB’s Dr. Shock, grew their own vegetables, toured Virginia College and put on an art show.
The housing authority also developed a Destiny program in which nearly a dozen teens met career role models and learned about career choices. The authority paid each student a $300 stipend at the end of summer. And nearly two dozen East Lake Courts children took a trip to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., funded by the Front Porch Alliance.
This was not the typical summer in public housing, but housing officials will try to have similar programming in the future, said Carol Johnson, director of resident services.