Three sites account for nearly 25 percent of Chattanooga’s homicides

Crime Suppression officer Saint Louis, left, and Chattanooga Housing investigator Pete Galyon, center, search Dalvin Thompson, center right, and Chris Kennemer as Orneasha Swafford, right, watches after the officers stopped them for a traffic violation at the East Lake Courts public housing site Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn. Crime Suppression officer Saint Louis, left, and Chattanooga Housing investigator Pete Galyon, center, search Dalvin Thompson, center right, and Chris Kennemer as Orneasha Swafford, right, watches after the officers stopped them for a traffic violation at the East Lake Courts public housing site Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn.

By Yolanda Putman, Shelly Bradbury February 8, 2015 8 min read

Nearly a fourth of Chattanooga’s homicides during 2014 happened in the city’s three oldest and largest public housing complexes.

Chattanooga’s public housing system, comprising 16 sites and 2,571 residents, usually averages about one homicide per year.

But six of the city’s 27 homicide victims were killed on public housing land last year, said Chattanooga Housing Authority Police Chief Felix Vess. That’s the highest number of killings in public housing in three years.

Photo Gallery

Violent Housing

Nearly a fourth of all gun and stabbing deaths in 2014 happened at three public housing sites, College Hill Courts, East Lake Courts and Emma Wheeler Homes. CHA officials saying they’re trying to start up resident associations and CHA police say they are personally knocking on residents doors to establish relationships with people so they may readily get information when or even before crime happens. CHA averages about one death a year at public housing sites. In 2014 it had 6.

And already this year, a 20-year-old woman was shot to death and a 1-year-old girl critically wounded in