The City of Chattanooga launched a new housing payment program to combat the national housing crisis and to promote units at lower rates in the area.
The Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program aims to better represent the variation in market rents across the city by tying tax reductions directly to the cost of monthly rents.
Sydney Shivers, the City’s Director of Housing Policy said the PILOT program is a revamp of a longstanding program the city has been providing. It used to incentivize development downtown. She said the previous version of the program had challenges for small and private developers who wanted into bring affordable units to their projects.
“This new approach will still work for our affordable housing developments and those led by local non-profit developers as well, but it also looks at a more per unit abatement approach, so that there is an incentive to create mixed-income developments,” explained Shivers.
Mayor Tim Kelly said that although there is still a lot of work remaining to battle the national housing crisis and to create more affordable housing, this program is progress.
“This new policy is a big step in the right direction,” Kelly said. “This gives us the freedom to incentivize affordable housing any way we can get it, not just in big blocks in large developments.”
Recent data from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development shows the need for affordable housing solutions in Chattanooga, with 56% of renters earning less than 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI).
Chief Housing Officer Nicole Heyman said the new program is specifically designed to aid the development of locally built and mixed income houses.
“My team has developed a flexible and effective PILOT aimed at meeting our City’s growing and diverse affordable housing needs,” Heyman said.
Renters will need to make a certain income to qualify for the apartments. On the 2024 PILOT rent schedule, it shows for a household with 50% Area Median Income, a 3 bedroom would be $1,138/month. For a household with 80% AMI their monthly rent would be $1,820 for a 3 bedroom.
For more information and details regarding eligibility, residents are encouraged to visit the PILOT article on the city’s website.
