COVID-19 INFORMATION FOR THE HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER PROGRAM

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Chattanooga Housing Authority wants to share with you what we are doing to limit risks for our employees, program participants and owners/property managers related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The Chattanooga Housing Authority will continue to actively and effectively manage the Housing Choice Voucher Program in response to COVID-19, with three key objectives in mind:
 

1.     Keeping our employees and their families safe.

2.     Ensuring our program is fully operational to serve clients.

3.     Doing our part as a corporate citizen to contain the spread of the virus.

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To promote a healthy work environment and do our part to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, we are continuing to emphasize CDC guidelines for personal prevention techniques.   Recommendations can be found at the CDC (www.cdc.gov).

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EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY AND UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, the Chattanooga Housing Authority’s office located at 801 N Holtzclaw Avenue will be closed to the public.  We are continuing to process paperwork and do as much program business as possible so we encourage everyone to use remote access.  Any paperwork can be faxed, emailed or mailed to our offices during this time and we have a drop slot at the front door of the office located at 801 N Holtzclaw Avenue.  You can download and print any of our forms on our website at www.chahousing.org.  We are making these forms fillable online as well so you will be able to save them and email to the appropriate person.  All of our contact information (fax and email) are listed below.  Please make sure you send all required forms and supporting documentation as well to prevent a delay in processing.  I have attached a checklist or listing of all required documents based on what you are reporting to us.  It is called the DOCUMENT CHECKLIST.    

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To protect our inspection staff who interact daily with participants and owners/property managers we have instituted the following:

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Any inspections even those that have already been scheduled are now suspended until further notice.  If you have a property in abatement and repairs are now made, you can email reinspections@chahousing.org as always to request the re-inspection.  If the unit passes inspection on the first try, we will make that pass date retroactive to the date you notified us that repairs were made. 

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For any initial inspections that have not been performed, those are suspended as well until further notice.  If upon inspection once we are back in the office the inspection passes on the first attempt, the pass date can be made retroactive to the date you stated the unit was ready for inspection and the contract and lease effective dates will be the day after that retroactive pass date.  If upon inspection once we are back in the office the inspection fails, the pass date will be when the inspection passes from the noted deficiencies.  The date will not be made retroactive in those cases.  We will send out a form to those that are eligible for this retroactive inspection pass date on move ins as we determine unit affordability. 

 

We will continue to monitor this situation closely and are committed to ensuring our core operations and our program remains fully operational and ready to serve you but remotely during this time.  We will continue to reevaluate the situation and determine what measures need to be taken at that time.  

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Thank you again for your participation in our program. We appreciate your trust in us and look forward to continuing to serve you.

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Below is the contact information for email and fax numbers for all HCVP staff.  Keep in mind that we will be operating on a skeleton crew so not everyone listed below will be responding to emails or faxes.  You can still email or send information/documentation to staff but understand that they may not be able to respond until they are allowed to return.  If you are unsure who to send the information to you can call the main number listed below for the Customer Service Representative:   

 

Program contact information

Program Director:  Tammie Carpenter; tcarpenter@chahousing.org; fax (423) 752-4833

Program Manager:  Michelle Brown; mbrown@chahousing.org; fax (423) 752-4814

Inspection Supervisor:  Dan Thomas; dthomas@chahousing.org; fax (423) 752-4816

Re-inspections:  resinpections@chahousing.org

Customer Service Representative:  Main number:  (423) 752-4866 (10:00am – 3:00 pm)

Housing Specialist & Customer Service:

Portability Specialist:  Teresa Cottom; tcottom@chahousing.org: fax (423) 752-4398

Waiting List Specialist:  Sylvia Horne; shorne@chahousing.org; fax (423) 752-4997

Rent Increase Specialist:  Linda Smarekar; lsmarekar@chahousing.org; fax (423) 752-4172

Relocation Specialist:  Brandee Johnson; bjohnson@chahousing.org; fax (423) 752-4170

Special Programs Intake Specialist:  Whitney Brazell; wbrazell@chahousing.org; fax (423) 752-4832

Administrative Assistant:  Roz Spence; rspence@chahousing.org; fax (423) 752-4395

Inspectors: 

Todd Lowery; tlowery@chahousing.org; fax (423) 668-2693

Glenn Ford; gford@chahousing.org; fax (423) 752-4475

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Interim Change Specialist:  Donna King; dking@chahousing.org; fax (423) 752-4843

Annual Re-certification Verification Specialist:  Jennifer Zendejas; jzendejas@chahousing.org; fax (423) 682-6658

Annual Re-certification Data Entry Specialist:  Liliya Schevchuk; lschevchuk@chahousing.org; fax (423) 752-4162

Family Unification Program Liaison:  Farosha Loyde-Lee; flee@chahousing.org; fax (423) 4881

HCVP Housing Navigator; Jackie Husband; jhusband@chahousing.org; fax (423) 752-4996

Family Self Sufficiency Coordinator:  Takeyta Young; tyoung@chahousing.org; fax (423) 752-4851