Housing Voucher Program Leads To Life-Long Friendship

  • Thursday, January 22, 2015

It was a stroke that took Hazel Husband’s ability to speak in 2014, but she was determined not to let it take her independence. The feisty 73-year-old, who was born in Laurel, Ms., was once a resident of the Chattanooga Housing Authority’s (CHA) Harriet Tubman complex. When it closed in 2012, Ms. Husband, using the CHA’s Housing Choice Voucher Program, found a new home in East Chattanooga. It’s the two-bedroom duplex on North Hickory Street that has helped her maintain her independence, regain her voice and befriend a woman she might have never otherwise met.

“From the moment I handed her a flyer about the property at a CHA event, I knew we’d hit it off,” said Dena Smith, who has made her rental properties available to Housing Choice Voucher holders for the last 13 years.

Ms. Smith, who co-owns several properties across Chattanooga with her parents, screens residents through traditional means like background checks and eviction records. Ultimately, she uses her instinct to tell her if a tenant is a good fit.

“I’m always looking for families who are interested in opportunities to do something better for themselves,” said Ms. Smith. “I try to find tenants who are able to contribute to the family atmosphere we encourage at each of our properties.”

Ms. Smith says she believes particularly in renting units to elderly tenants who are on a fixed income. She says providing quality housing to those who have paid their dues in life feels like a way to give back.  That’s why she chose to offer her units to CHA Housing Choice Voucher Program participants. It’s a way to supplement the incomes of individuals like Hazel Husband, who both need and deserve a place to call home.

Having her own home has made a world of difference for Ms. Husband, who has completely recovered from her stroke. Now she enjoys exercising the voice that seemed to be gone by chatting with friends on the phone and having her adult children over to visit. For Ms. Husband’s daughter, Jackie, it’s a reminder of the difference subsidized housing can make in the lives of those aiming for self-sufficiency. She says it was a lesson her mother taught her while growing up at the Harriet Tubman complex.

“People are too quick to stereotype people who live in subsidized housing,” said Jackie Husband, who credits her mother with giving her a vision for success and the CHA for playing a role in that success.

Ms. Husband, a U.S. Army veteran, was a 1999 CHA-sponsored Jobs Plus Program graduate. The experience led her to beauty school and then to create a successful hair salon on the Harriet Tubman site. In 2009, she purchased a home of her own through assistance with the Housing Choice Voucher Homeownership Program. Now she lives just a few blocks away from her mother. It makes it easy for her to assist her mom with weekly errands. Two generations, both touched by a program meant to provide opportunity. In this case, it has supplied friendship, too.

“That’s my girl,” said Ms. Husband, referring to Ms. Smith, who is now more of a friend than a landlord.

The pair hopes their relationship will encourage other Chattanooga landlords to open their doors to Housing Choice Voucher recipients. As the Chattanooga Housing Authority prepares to open the waiting list later this month, for the first time since 2010, both Ms. Smith and Ms. Husband see opportunity for others to experience independence, betterment and life-long friendship.

 

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