The Chattanooga City Council approved reallocation of $1.45 million worth of federal COVID relief funding in their Tuesday meeting.
The funds were originally set aside for the purchase of a hotel that would be converted into an emergency shelter to allow for control of the spread of COVID-19, according to Jermaine Freeman, Mayor Tim Kelly’s senior adviser for economic opportunity.
The revised plan is to look into utilizing those funds to create other “affordable housing options” in the city.
“We realized that we had an opportunity to do a lot more for affordable housing if we reallocated the funding,” said Chief Housing Officer Nicole Heyman in an interview with the Times Free Press.
Mayor Tim Kelly’s office has already used more than $3 million from federal stimulus money to help develop low-barrier shelters for the homeless in the city. City council members will also make a decision in May as to how to use nearly $3.2 million that will be received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
