Here we go again. No information, no communication, and no care for the people who live, work, and send their children to school in this area. It seems the city of Chattanooga is in a time crunch to apply for funds by July 31, so they are throwing this plan together haphazardly without any community meetings again. The city spent $2.8 million to purchase the Airport Inn almost three years ago in October of 2021 and it has sat abandoned and used regularly for criminal activities. At one point, Mayor Kelly said that since the city purchased the motel that 911 calls went down by 47 percent in the area, but then a few months later, the city had to spend $22,000 to secure the building because there were so many calls to it.
Now, they just want to hand it off to an outside group with no community input or involvement in the middle of summer when hopefully no one is looking.
In October of 2022, during the City Council meeting, Mayor Kelly apologized for the lack of communication from the city about this project. On the city of Chattanooga’s website, the city specifically stated how they would keep the community engaged throughout the process, but have never followed through.
The last thing the community heard was back in January when they were told by the city’s Chief Housing Officer, Nicole Heyman, that the city may be pivoting away from permanent support of housing and toward an affordable housing or mixed income project.
Since the last community meeting, the city has done nothing to prepare this site for a homeless shelter or “permanent supportive housing”. No new bus stop anywhere close, no grocery stores nearby, no new sidewalks, no cleaning up of the other motels, nothing. It is the exact same as it was when the city purchased this “flea bag motel” as Mayor Kelly likes to call it.
Let’s not forget that the group that Mayor Kelly praised and was so excited to bring to Chattanooga is now embroiled in a $100 million lawsuit with the state of California. Now, without much time for due diligence, the city is just going to hand over a $2.8 million property and no one should ask questions?
Tiffany Newberry
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Thank you, Ms. Newberry, for informing. The public is in the dark about this situation, or at-least I was.
Another homeless funding debacle.
The city of Chattanooga has a history of chronic failure in the use of tax dollars assigned to help the homeless. The large tax dollar investments trickle away from the need.
What an embarrassment. The city taxpayers are once again being fleeced for another round “help the homeless” where public funds flow to everyone, but the homeless.
For the folks that remember the millions of local tax dollars wasted on the city’s purchase of the polluted farmers market in a land deal that was simply deplorable, this is outrageous. The farmers market project was about 50 percent intended to funnel proceeds to political friends, and millions for environmental studies that never amounted to helping the homeless. An estimated 10 million dollars was wasted in the homeless campus pursuit that yielded nothing for the homeless.
That city’s outrageous actions on the prior homeless effort are condemnable.
The city of Chattanooga dared to call down Hamilton County elected for failing to fall in line with their spending for homeless intervention 3 years ago. I was cheering for the city’s plan to help provide temporary housing for the homeless and felt hopeful, of course history does repeat. The city failed miserably.
Here we are three years later, and not one homeless person has been assisted with the purchase of this Airport Inn. Money for vulnerable populations such as the homeless flow away for impactful purpose.
What is this?
The city has left a $3 million investment sitting for three years, not housing homeless. Is that correct? Somehow this is not surprising, as we dodge potholes everywhere.
I am reasonably fed up with seeing millions go to the cause of homelessness by the city of Chattanooga that results in zero temporary housing or outcomes at all.
Thank you, Ms. Newberry. No one would know about this without your words.
What would the $3 million in a land purchase have done for the homeless over the last three years?
City Council, do your job and intervene, sell the Airport Inn, and get the money to the need.
April Eidson