Housing Matters, cont’d.

In one of the articles last week in the Chattanooga Times Free Press on the Chattanooga Housing Authority’s continuing financial problems, the reporter interviewed a resident in one of the CHA complexes. The reporter asked the resident if she noticed any effects of the layoffs of personnel which began in February. The resident complained that grass was going uncut. Memories of many, many CHA board meetings came back to me. I was a spectator only where the projects were concerned, although the complaints of Section 8 residents followed the same pattern, just aimed at private landlords instead of CHA.

A Fine Mess in Housing

Public Housing, that is. My former employer, the Chattanooga Housing Authority, over the past few months has been buffeted by revelations of financial mismanagement. Reserves dwindling to nearly nothing, administrative expenses paid from funds reserved for subsidy to housing residents and an assortment of questionable practices give the impression of an agency on the verge of collapse.