Even as city and county officials move forward with plans to redevelop the area, Victoria Gray, a nearly three-year resident of College Hill Courts, doesn't intend to remain in the Westside neighborhood. Crime is a problem, she said.
"It doesn't matter if you tear these buildings down," she said in an interview. "The same people are going to be here. That's like putting a Band-Aid over a wound that's bleeding profusely. You've got to be able to take care of that wound first before you patch it up."
Mary Shepheard, however, is eager to stay. After experiencing homelessness, she moved into College Hill Courts 15 years ago and sees her neighbors as family. She adamantly wants to remain in the Westside.
"Everybody looks out for each other," Shepheard said. "That's the most important thing. If I don't see you today, I'm knocking on that door. We're just like a team. We like to stick together."
Although they point out it's taken a while, Westside residents are ready for the Chattanooga Housing Authority and its partners to begin the work of revitalizing their community. Under a plan called Westside Evolves, the agency intends to demolish and fully replace 629 units of public housing, which will be part of a broader effort to transform that area over the next decade. The Chattanooga City Council approved a key funding mechanism for the project Tuesday, which will also require sign-off from the Hamilton County Commission.
Officials also foresee the construction of another 1,100 to 1,200 units in the neighborhood, which would be available for households making 31% of the area median income or more.
About 700 of the new units would be market-rate or unrestricted housing, available at 81% of the area median income or higher, according to the plan. In Chattanooga, the area median income for a one-person household is $55,800, according to Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise.
Chattanooga's Westside neighborhood has a higher proportion of Black residents than the city at large — 87% versus 34% — and the median income is a quarter of the rest of the city — $11,484 versus $43,964, according to an overview of the project published in November 2021.
Right to return
All existing residents will have the right to return to new units as crews construct new housing in phases. Under the plan, no resident who wants to remain in the Westside will have to move offsite during construction, according to the housing authority.
In interviews with the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Westside residents tend to agree that crime continues to be a recurring issue, although it has generally improved over the long term and appears to be caused by people who don't live at College Hill Courts or Gateway Towers, they said.
"I love socializing out here with the neighbors who have been out here for a long time because it's a good, close-knit community," Jimmie Greene, who has lived in College Hill Courts for nearly four years, said in an interview. "There's no violence involved with the older people. Just the younger ones."
There were four shootings in College Hill Courts and none at Gateway Towers between Jan. 1 and Oct. 29, according to data from the Chattanooga Police Department. Over the same period, there were 1,476 calls for service at College Hill Courts and 144 at Gateway Towers.
Recently, the Westside neighborhood has been quiet, Greene said. He used to stay on Chattanooga's Wilson Street, which was a lot worse, Greene said.
"Shooting every night," he said. "Cameras all up and down the street — ain't doing no good. People running through your yard shooting. I was glad to get out here."
The violent crime rate in the Westside community is about two times higher than the rest of the city, according to the 2021 plan. However, Shepheard said circumstances have improved in the 15 years she's lived in College Hill Courts, and she's noticed more officers patrolling the neighborhood. Shepheard feels safe.
"I used to stay in the house," she said. "Now we come outside. We sit outside and enjoy life. ... We've got one life to live, and we've got to live it to the fullest."
Another view
Crime may be a problem across Chattanooga, but it seems more prevalent in the Westside, Gray said.
"If you go to white neighborhoods, you don't hear about people shooting in the middle of the night, making you crawl out of your bed and hide somewhere," she said. "I've had a shooting happen right behind where I stay at. That doesn't happen in white neighborhoods or middle class neighborhoods or wealthy neighborhoods. You don't hear about people shooting up the place in Hixson."
Gray arrived in Chattanooga about three years ago from Texas and spent some time homeless before securing housing at College Hill Courts. She's originally from Chicago, but Gray doesn't particularly want to stay in Chattanooga — there's limited options here for African Americans, she said, and not many opportunities to get ahead.
"You've got to get your credit together," she said. "You have to find somebody who will give you a shot at a very good job. In the employee clause, they say they don't discriminate, but as I've noticed working in Chattanooga, they do. There's a lot of racial discrimination."
On Friday, she brought her resume and cover letter to a job fair in a small courtyard between apartment blocks at College Hill Courts. Members of the Chattanooga Housing Authority's resident council were sitting at a handful of booths on a sunny fall afternoon. Gray wants to work in information technology support, but she has also applied for a job in homeless outreach.
Improvement
Laverne Reed has lived in the Westside since around 2008 and wants to remain in College Hill Courts to see the new housing go up. Reed used to reside in Alton Park but lost her apartment. A case manager at the Chatt Foundation helped her find housing in the Westside neighborhood.
(READ MORE: Survey: Most of Chattanooga's Westside residents want to stay)
When she first moved to College Hill Courts, the neighborhood was rough, but it's improved over the last 15 years.
"I'm out here enjoying my life," she said in an interview on her front porch. "I don't have to keep running into my house dodging bullets."
Queena Fuqua, who has lived in College Hill Courts for about eight years, has 8-year-old twins. She doesn't let them play outside by themselves. It's about time that officials move forward with redeveloping the Westside, Fuqua said, and she hopes the project will foster better conditions in her neighborhood.
"Right now, this is not a good environment for these children," she said in an interview.
Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.