Chattanooga City Council Chair Raquetta Dotley, of East Lake, is demanding more up-to-date information about the number of public housing residents who want to stay in the Westside neighborhood once aging units are demolished and then replaced.
The panel heard an update on the plan Tuesday ahead of a vote in the coming weeks. The Chattanooga Housing Authority intends to completely replace 629 units of public housing at College Hill Courts and Gateway Tower as part of a broader revitalization of the Westside community, which is largely Black and suffers from a higher rate of poverty than the rest of the city.
"We should have a definite number of those that want to stay," Dotley, who represents that community, said during a council meeting Tuesday. "These are assumptions, and assumptions make an ass out of me, and it makes an ass out of you."
The last Westside resident survey was completed in 2020. Council members were shown a timeline Tuesday projecting how many existing College Hill Courts residents would move into new housing assuming 30% decided to stay on-site.
"I don't appreciate this at all," Dotley continued. "This is ridiculous. I would not consider supporting any of this until I see actual numbers of those who would like to stay and how they will be phased into this project."
Officials expect approximately 1,800 units could be constructed over the course of the project, with about 60% of those being affordable to people making 0-80% of the area median income, according to a November 2021 plan. Every unit of public housing would be preserved.
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The Chattanooga Housing Authority has said all existing residents would have the right to move into the new housing as it's constructed over the course of multiple phases. Every resident will also have the opportunity to receive a housing choice voucher that would enable them to move.
"If they want to move to Alabama to be with their families, then we will work with them ... to help them find that unit," Chattanooga Housing Authority Executive Director Betsy McCright told the council.
Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / City Council Chair Raquetta Dotley speaks Aug. 3 before Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly's State of the City speech at the Walker Theatre.If the project moves forward, the Chattanooga Housing Authority intends to bring on board two organizations, Housing Opportunities Unlimited and Urban Strategies, to assist with relocation and case management for residents who decide they want to leave the neighborhood.
Funding for the project is tied to a more than $1 billion effort to redevelop the former Alstom property. Known as The Bend, the 120-acre parcel is the last available stretch of Chattanooga's downtown waterfront.
The developers, Urban Story Ventures, are seeking a special tax district from the city and Hamilton County that would use newly created tax revenue to fund up to $135 million worth of public infrastructure.
The district would last for 20 years, and developers said they already have $1.3 billion worth of investments lined up, including an urban grocery store, hundreds of units of multifamily housing and a resort-style hotel. That is dependent on the incentive package receiving approval. The City Council is one of the boards that would have sign-off on the deal.
New tax revenue generated at The Bend would aid officials as they seek a $50 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the Westside project. Receiving that grant could in turn unlock more than $100 million worth of low-income housing tax credits, a competitive funding tool officials said affordable housing projects in Chattanooga have often struggled to obtain.
Jermaine Freeman, interim chief of staff for Mayor Tim Kelly, told council members they would be able to withhold special tax revenue from the housing authority until they feel their concerns about the Westside project have been addressed. They can also add a condition requiring officials complete more frequent surveys in the neighborhood.
"You now all have the ability to really take hold of the relocation planning for the housing authority and to hold onto the (tax) revenues until you are satisfied," he said.
This would not delay work at The Bend, Freeman said.
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Council Member Marvene Noel, of Orchard Knob, also called for the housing authority to complete a more current survey and said offering vouchers to residents if they decide to leave muddies the waters.
"I'm not going to beg, I'm not going to plead, I'm not going to entertain none of this foolishness that has been placed up here in front of me today," she said during the meeting. "It is Jim Crow sprinkled from the beginning to the end ... and from what you have shown me today, it is still there."
Kendra Lawrence has lived at College Hill Courts for about year and was at the meeting with about a dozen residents wearing bright yellow Westside T-shirts. Lawrence loves living in the neighborhood — it's where her granddaughters and grandsons also live.
"I think there is a lot of people that want to stay," she said in an interview, "but they're so confused. They think they're going to get kicked off the property, things are getting torn down."
She expects the Westside project will be good for the community.
"New amenities — that's good, but if you displace the Black folks then there's no sense for us to even come to these meetings if we're not going to be involved in the long run," Lawrence said.
In an interview after the meeting, Dotley said she requested updated numbers a few months ago. Having current data would allow the council to establish performance requirements for the housing authority.
"It's very disrespectful and treacherous for them not to bring that information today," Dotley said.
Displacement has been a problem with past Chattanooga Housing Authority projects, she said.
"I've known residents that have gone through the same process," she said. "The housing authority said that they were going to have the right to return and they will have priority only for them not to be put back into those newer spaces that were developed, they were not returned to the spaces they were in.
"This is just another example of that — them doing the exact same thing. It's almost as if they're sheep in wolf's clothing."
Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.