The idea for CNE was inspired by James Rouse, a nationally renowned urban planner and developer who visited Chattanooga in 1984, as Vision 2000 - the community-wide planning process that sparked the downtown renaissance - was underway. "They can't afford the market rents going on in this area Even at $15 an hour they are stretched." *** "Landlords are doubling the rent, and they say they are living in their cars," said Prichard, who speaks daily with people on the waitlist. A recent $25 rent increase was the first in five years. Since 2010, CNE has helped 1,693 people buy their own home by providing access to education, loans and downpayment assistance, and, in the past four years, over $39.7 million in home equity was created for low and moderate income households locally.ĬNE also manages 165 affordable rental units in the city, a number the nonprofit is building back up after shedding hundreds of rental properties in the early 2000s.Īn additional 53 units should be available for rent by the end of the year, which will be leased by those next in line on the organization's 448-person waitlist, said Robert Prichard, vice president of property and asset management at CNE.ĬNE won't rent to anyone making more than 80 percent of the area median income, which means one person can't make more than $42,150 and a two-person household can't make more than $48,150. Roberson is among a small but growing number of Chattanoogans finding hope in the desperate hunt for affordable housing, thanks to CNE, an often misunderstood nonprofit lender and developer that dates back to the 1980s downtown renaissance and became a catalyst for downtown's real estate price surge years ago. "I am so desperate to get out of the apartment loop." "I have just been praying the Lord would give me a place where we could have dinner together, room to enjoy each other's company," she said, excited, while driving to deliver her earnest money. Even the worst homes seemed to command bidding wars. She settled for the 1,221 square foot, three-bedroom home off Wilcox Boulevard because she couldn't afford anything she actually loved. Quickly, she offered $180,000, and they accepted. One of the homes she had previously bid on was back on the market. Then, a real estate agent called with news. "After I got outbid on the last house I wasn't even trying anymore," she said. Those same forces were also being blamed for the $220 rent increase Roberson had just received notice of. "Our affordable homes, that is where the price has jumped the most," Haynes said. Now, those same homes are selling for more than $180,000, and East Ridge leads the county, and recently led the state, in the percentage of rental homes. Then investors began buying them up, said Hamilton County Assessor of Property Marty Haynes. In 2017, a 1,400 square foot home in East Ridge sold for between $110,00 and $120,000. Then investors began buying them up, Hamilton County Assessor of Property Marty Haynes said. "We see what the outcome is without having any controls: This huge company from Canada (for example) overpays for everything and your neighborhoods are all owned by absentee landlords at rental prices." "We have to start talking about how we get control of our housing resources," CNE President and CEO Martina Guilfoil said. In the last six months, however, only 188 houses costing less than that went on the market in Chattanooga, and 68% were sold to investors, according to recent data collected by CNE, which has been positioning itself to begin leading Chattanooga's response to the global affordable housing crisis. When the time came to house hunt, she was armed with a pre-approved home loan and downpayment assistance through CNE, and her own savings, yet after six months of fastidious searching and three failed bids she felt no match for the market forces at work.Ī household with an income of $45,650 a year - around what many teachers, firefighters and skilled laborers make - can afford a $155,000 house. Still, she waited patiently for seven years to pass, when most negative debt would fall off her credit report, while renting a small apartment in East Ridge, taking classes at Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprises to improve her eligibility for a home loan and scratching together savings for a downpayment. Roberson, who works full time as a scheduling supervisor at a local doctor's office and part time as a caregiver for another health care operation, was eager to own a home again - a place her four grandchildren could visit - after her divorce and subsequent foreclosure. Homeownership is becoming far more elusive in Chattanooga, and it's a dream Theresa Roberson almost let die.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |