FREE Land from the City?

Back in December, the Chattanooga Times Free Press published an article discussing a proposal that Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke had put forward to give away city-owned land in order to speed up the development of quality housing for lower-income families.

Though the article is a few months old, the initiative was first put forward by Berke last summer. The goal, as described by Times Free Press writer Joy Lukachick, is:

"...to have 30 low-income families in houses by the end of the fiscal year on June 30. That gives officials a little more than six months to finish vetting the properties and find developers to build the houses."

With over 1000 people in Chattanooga on the waitlist for federal housing vouchers, this approach has attracted both praise and criticism alike. Most of the criticism has been leveled at the potential cost and the forced breakup of communities to meet the demands of the initiative.

Click here to read the full article. Again, this article was initially published in the Chattanooga Times Free Press.