The Chattanooga Housing Authority on Thursday slammed the door shut on its past and opened windows of opportunity for people wanting a home to call their own.
"It's now truly a one-stop shop," said Charles Barnett, representing the Department of Housing and Urban Development at the grand opening of CHA's new headquarters at 801 N. Holtzclaw Ave.
It is now called the Greater Chattanooga Housing Resource Center, and, according to executive director Bob Dull, "it brings scattered remnants under one roof."
Located in a 29,000-sqaure-foot renovated warehouse previously owned by CHA, the facility will house all of the agency’s central and ancillary services. Those services include public housing operations, the Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8) and MyCommunityRents.com, as well as uniform verification and compliance programs.
With streamlining and coordination, staff can direct and assist people in gaining housing for anything from a one-room apartment, a duplex, a townhouse or a single-family dwelling.
To assure accessibility, CHA has worked with the Chattanooga Area Regional Transit Authority (CARTA) to create a new CHA bus route that starts Nov. 20. The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum plans to install a railroad pre-emption device near the facility, and the city will place a new traffic signal at the intersection in front of the housing resource center.
The new chair of the CHA board is Consuelo O'Neal, who grew up in public housing, and she said she is steadfast about the mission of the Center. "We're not interested in doing business as usual," she said. "Our vision is to be the choice provider of housing for people who need it."
Former CHA executive director Billy Cooper received special recognition with the presentation of a plaque that had adorned the central office on M.L.King Blvd. It included his name as well as former board members and then Mayor Pat Rose. When asked what he'd do with it as in using it as a stepping stone in his garden he quipped "Yep, I can just walk all over myself!" On a serious note, he expressed "empathy" to the current executive due to cutbacks in federal funding and the effort he is making in providing housing for people who can ill-afford it.
CHA sold its current central office, located at 505 W. M L. King Jr. Blvd., to BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee last year. About 80 CHA employees will work at the Greater Chattanooga Housing Resource Center, which was designed by TWH Architects and built by Chazler Inc.
"This was like the show 'Mission Impossible'," said architect Vance Travis. "We take a warehouse and transform it into this?"
Much credit was given to Rasheed Ladapo, CHA's Chief Development Officer,and Development Executive Naveed Minhas who spearheaded the transformation in a short time and under budget.
"We took it from a concrete bunker to what it is today, and our ultimate success will be in utilizing this facility to provide decent, safe and affordable housing to all people in need," Mr. Ladapo said.
Mayor Ron Littlefield applauded the cooperative effort between CHA and the City in working together on housing opportunities as well as assembling properties in the inner city to develop such prime locations as the Golden Gateway, the TVA complex, Miller Park, Miller Plaza, the Tennessee Aquarium and the new Electric Power Board Building.