Mayor’s Office Proposes $2.8 Million for Homeless Shelter

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) — There are thirty million dollars in federal money available to the city of Chattanooga through the American Rescue Plan.

The City is considering using two point eight million to build a low barrier homeless shelter.

According to Director of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, Same Wolfe, such a shelter would make it easier for homeless people to get off the street
and into long-term housing.

“More often than not, people, if they’re looking for a safe place to sleep that night, that’s what dominates your thoughts, right? It’s Maslov’s Hierarchy
of Needs. You and I are able to operate and do our jobs because we know we’ll have a safe place to live. And so a shelter does just that. It gives people
that stability while we’re ultimately working with them to get housing and get off the streets,” said Wolfe.

Projects like this have been attempted in the past by multiple Mayor’s administrations, and they’ve failed to get off the ground. But Sam Wolfe says the
main roadblock was funding, and that’s something that the American Rescue Plan provides.

“This is just something about how the Kelly administration likes to do business. We like to have the funding in place while we’re working to identify a
partner, while we’re working to develop the plan, and those types of things. So, really that’s where we’re at with the shelter. We don’t have a location
picked out. we don’t have a partner yet — we’re having conversations with folks. But we want to be able to come to those conversations with a very public
commitment of funding to go toward this project,” said Wolfe.

It’s not clear what the total capacity of the shelter will be.

But the shelter would have fewer requirements for entry than others in the area.