New affordable housing community opens in Chattanooga

The ribbon cutting at Shallowford Pointe (Courtesy: DGA Residential)

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- A new affordable housing development in Chattanooga held its ribbon cutting Wednesday.

Shallowford Pointe is a 96 unit apartment complex across from the VA Hospital on Shallowford Road.

These are split up into two and three bedroom apartments.

Developed by DGA Residential, residents will be able to use section 8 vouchers to help pay their rent.

The income cap for a family of four is around $57,000 a year, and they have to apply through the Chattanooga Housing Authority, who owns a 20 percent stake in the complex.

Developers say the goal is that tenants will not spend more than 30 percent of their monthly income on rent.

Craig Cobb, the President of Development for DGA Residential said, “The discount is about $600-$800 a month difference from market rate so it’s it’s quite a bit lower.”

This is the first affordable housing project to be built through the city’s Payment in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOT program.

Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly hopes will serve as a tool to accelerate the construction of new housing units across the city.

Mayor Kelly: said, “This could’ve been market rate housing, and it would’ve been pretty damn expensive housing I must say… I wouldn’t call it an explosion (of new homes), but we’re certainly working. DGA has done an incredible job with this development and we now have the partners lined up and we know how to create the capital stacks to do this. So we will get there, I mean yes we need probably 4,000- 5000 units but it happens one project at a time.

The hope is that developments such as this will also create new opportunities.

Cobb said, “It really helps attract industry when they come into a new market. That’s usually one of the first things industries come into the Chamber and ask “Where are the people we are going to bring, where are they going to live?”

The first residents have already moved in.