Major development projects during the past 20 years have coincided with the displacement of African Americans out of Chattanooga’s downtown, according to findings from the Unity Group.
Looking forward, the nonprofit organization said it has concerns about how the One Westside project will affect one of the last neighborhoods with a high concentration of Black residents in the city’s urban core.
“At a minimum, Chattanooga leaders and One Westside supporters need to be honest,” the Unity Group said in a report released last week. “African Americans will be displaced. The pattern is clear and indisputable. Safeguards have not been in place to give African Americans opportunities to remain in and around downtown Chattanooga. The market forces unleashed by hyper-gentrification radically change local culture, housing prices and community networks.”
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The group evaluated at least 20 census tracts in downtown Chattanooga between 2000 and 2021 and found the African American population has decreased in those areas from 31,824 in 2000 to 23,131 in 2021, a 27% decline. This has occurred as the African American population in Hamilton County has slightly increased during the same time period.
“Whether by design or market forces, redevelopment in the urban core and surrounding neighborhoods has not boded well for African American residents,” the report states. “Thousands of them have been displaced by the destruction of public housing, market rents and higher earning workers in the innovative economy.”
One Westside
Announced May 26, the One Westside plan encompasses two projects occurring across more than 200 acres of property near the Tennessee River. The name echoes Mayor Tim Kelly’s “One Chattanooga” plan, an evolving strategy aimed at closing socioeconomic gaps across the city.
Urban Story Ventures is preparing to embark on a revitalization of 120 acres of riverfront land called The Bend, a project the group said could create at least 2,000 new jobs and generate between $800 million and $2.3 billion of development.
The project includes 1,500 new residential units. Developers have said 10% of the housing would be reserved for people making at or below 80% of the area’s median income.
Developers are asking city and county leaders for a special tax district that would allow them to harness new tax revenue generated by the project to help fund infrastructure like roads, sidewalks and parking lots. The project is also tied to a long-term plan, dubbed Westside Evolves, to update housing for residents in a neighborhood with a disproportionately high rate of poverty.
Additional tax revenue created by the district would help the Chattanooga Housing Authority apply for a $50 million federal grant, aiding with the construction of 1,783 new housing units in the Westside community. That includes one-for-one replacements of 629 units of public housing at Gateway Tower and College Hill Courts, aging buildings that would be demolished.
Construction of the new housing would occur across 12 phases, and all current residents would be guaranteed a spot as apartments are completed, officials say. Some may have to temporarily move offsite depending on the pace of construction.
Culture changes
According to a plan published in November 2021, almost half of the 2,600 residents of the Westside community live in poverty, greater than the 17% poverty rate citywide. A larger proportion of families living in the neighborhood — 87% — are Black, compared to 34% of residents across Chattanooga.
“With all the development going on around there, it’s a very real question: Are the residents going to be priced out of those locations?” Eric Atkins of the Unity Group of Chattanooga said in a phone call Friday. “That has to be a very real consideration on the table right now. Is it going to be affordable for those residents, many of whom are below the poverty threshold anyway?”
Of the 1,783 units constructed in the Westside community, 629 would be public housing units reserved for tenants earning between zero to 30% of the area median income. Another 178 would be for people earning between 31-60% of area median income, 267 for between 61-80% and the remainder, 709, would be intended for residents making 81% or more.
Kenneth Chilton, a professor in the department of public administration at Tennessee State University, was a research consultant on the Unity Group’s report. Along with increases in housing costs, development can also cause more intangible shifts in the community, he said.
“When a neighborhood changes, the culture changes,” Chilton said in an interview. “The local networks change, the people I used to rely on for child care or to run down to the market to help me out when I needed it. When that mix of folks changes, some people might not feel as welcome as others.”
As a form of accountability, Chilton said, officials should consistently check in with existing residents over the long term to track whether they have stayed in the neighborhood or decided to leave.
Helping residents
In a statement, the Chattanooga Housing Authority said it’s been consistent and transparent about efforts to prevent the displacement of Westside residents, citing lessons learned during the demolition of Poss Homes and Harriet Tubman Homes.
“These lessons are being applied in the Westside Evolves plan to ensure current residents face as little displacement and disruption as possible,” the organization said.
The plan has consistently called for a “build first” strategy, the authority said, meaning residents will move to new housing as units come online. As a means of ensuring there’s a smooth transition, any resident required to move will have all their expenses — such as moving, utilities and cable — covered by the housing authority.
Additionally, the housing authority said it will have a relocation partner in place to provide resources necessary for residents to make any transitions as smooth as possible.
“The CHA is committed to making sure as few residents as possible are relocated,” the statement continued. “The hope is that no one is relocated; however, this is a surety that cannot be made until planning and funding are secured.”
Jermaine Freeman, Kelly’s interim chief of staff, said families who live in neighborhoods with high concentrations of poverty have a hard time escaping into better living conditions.
“The healthiest neighborhoods are not neighborhoods where you have deep entrenched poverty,” Freeman said in a phone call. “The healthiest neighborhoods are going to be neighborhoods where you have people of different income levels” and different lived experiences.
College Hill Courts, for example, feels isolated from the remainder of the downtown area, he said, and one of the goals of redevelopment is to ensure that the community is more connected to the rest of the city.
“If you live on the Westside, you share a ZIP code with the central business district, which is 37402,” Freeman said. “Yet, it feels like you’re in two different worlds when you’re standing on Grove Street versus if you’re standing on Market Street. That’s not the Chattanooga that I think any of us want.”
Even if existing Westside residents have to move as construction proceeds, he said, they could gain access to housing options in other parts of the city they’ve never had before.
“Although it’s easy for us to assume that we know what’s best for the residents of College Hill Courts and Gateway Tower … they will have the ability to make their own decisions and chart their own course,” he said.
What comes next
In a written statement, Brad Shumpert, the executive vice president of Urban Story Ventures, said community input has been instrumental to plans for The Bend since Day One. It helped shape a master plan for the project, which aims to address current and future hopes and concerns about the development.
“No one is currently living at The Bend, and no one has lived there in over a century,” Shumpert said. “The site has been known as a job creator for decades, and we intend to keep that same focus. There were three people employed when we made the acquisition, and now hundreds work at The Bend.”
He said the developers are doing all they can to make sure The Bend leaves a lasting positive impact on the community.
“One Westside presents a unified plan where The Bend’s development provides significant funding for education and for affordable housing on the Westside that is designed for current and future residents,” Shumpert said. “There will be housing for all income levels under the One Westside plan.”
In an email, Chattanooga City Council Chair Raquetta Dotley, of East Lake, said the One Westside project has the opportunity to be one of the biggest economic and housing catalysts the city has seen in quite some time. Dotley’s council district includes the Westside neighborhood and The Bend.
“It is very important that we take every issue and/or concern very seriously, especially when it pertains to those who have historically been impacted by systemic racism,” Dotley said in an email. “Reports and research have their place. However, there is also a time for action. The real work comes in not only making us aware of the issues that we so desperately need to combat but in actually creating systems that will force true systemic change.”
Dotley encourages everyone to read the Unity Group’s report, but the real question, she said, is what comes next.
Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.