During a public meeting last month, Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp mentioned the idea of transforming a portion of the former Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts building in East Brainerd into a low-barrier shelter tailored for students and families experiencing homelessness.
It's a suggestion homeless advocates say could help bolster the county's limited shelter capacity, but officials say it's a preliminary proposal.
"At this point, we are in the very early exploratory phases of determining whether it would be feasible to use the old CSLA facility for this purpose," Hamilton County Schools spokesman Steve Doremus said in an email Tuesday.
Doremus said Superintendent Justin Robertson has had many conversations with the mayor about a number of issues, including ways to serve the growing homeless population. Last month, he said, the idea of using the old CSLA facility was mentioned in one of those discussions.
The facility is no longer being used as a school, Doremus said, and students who were there last semester will start at the new campus Wednesday. Younger students moved in August to the new CSLA at the former Lakeside Elementary School.
Wamp's spokesperson, Mary Francis Hoots, said in a statement Tuesday that the mayor, the superintendent and county engineer Todd Leamon toured CSLA days before Christmas to "further explore the possibility of converting the school facility to a shelter aimed at preventing homelessness among families of Hamilton County students."
"We have reached out to officials at the city of Chattanooga to schedule a follow-up visit in order to fully assess next steps," she said.
Wamp referenced the proposal during a County Commission meeting Dec. 14, when commissioners were discussing a resolution that would provide up to $50,000 to fund temporary accommodations for families displaced by the closure of the Budgetel Inn in East Ridge. That funding was ultimately approved without Wamp's signature.
Wamp told commissioners Dec. 14 the CSLA proposal was not at a point at which his office was ready to request funding. Officials would bring in an experienced organization to run the shelter.
"It's not great as a school facility, but it's warm, and it's got a cafeteria and a lot of the other functions that would enable it being a place to serve families," he said.
The school disctrict has estimated about 1,600 students experienced homelessness during the 2021-22 academic year, which is triple the 533 the district saw during the 2017-18 school year.
Wamp said during the meeting he would be discussing the proposal that week with Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly.
"We're certainly open to any and all ideas," Ellis Smith, the director of special projects in Kelly's administration, said in a phone call last week. "Homelessness isn't an issue that stops at borders ... and the solution is similarly going to take the whole community."
It's not yet clear what role the city would play in that project, he said.
"I think we're taking a look at what that would be," Smith said. "I think that's still an open question. It's still very preliminary. ... To do something of that magnitude would certainly be a long-term heavy lift, but we're certainly open to where that takes us."
Chattanooga officials have set aside roughly $3 million in federal pandemic relief funds to develop a low-barrier shelter of their own, which could serve people suffering from issues like addiction that could be otherwise turned away at other facilites.
Sam Wolfe, the director of the city's office of homelessness and supportive housing, said in a phone call Tuesday that officials have a short list of potential sites for the shelter, but they still need to conduct some environmental and architectural assessments to determine the viability of those locations.
The city will also need to communicate its plans with potential neighbors.
"We need so much capacity in so many areas in our homeless response system," Wolfe said of the plan Wamp mentioned last month. "I think this is definitely needed."
If it's managed with the right programming, Wolfe said, this type of facility could serve as a safe landing pad for people hoping to move into more permanent housing.
The Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition's director of community engagement, Mackenzie Kelly, noted there is an immense need for a low-barrier shelter.
"I don't think that two shelters is overdoing it," Kelly said in a phone call. "I think it's addressing the need we see in our community."
County Commission Chairman Chip Baker, R-Signal Mountain, said in a phone call Tuesday he hasn't received any further communication from the mayor's office about the proposal.
"I haven't seen a budget, I haven't seen a plan, so I can't really render an opinion without a lot more information," he said.
Hamilton County School Board Chairwoman Tiffanie Robinson said the idea is noble and interesting, but it wouldn't align with the district's facilities plan. Hamilton County Schools is dealing with nearly $1 billion worth of needed repairs across its facilities.
"Our plan had always been to repurpose the CSLA property ideally for a future school because we know at the end of the day we're going to need more footprint for schools," Robinson said in a phone call.
The Board of Education hasn't been approached about the idea, she said.
At this moment, Robinson said, the building is in too poor of a condition to serve students. The structure would likely need to be demolished and rebuilt, which would be quite an investment.
"Facilities are the No. 1 issue in Hamilton County right now, so it just feels off-track to be repurposing a property that we have for something that is not geared toward the charge that the board has been given, which is to go focus on facilities," she said.
Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.