NEWPORT — The Tennessee Housing Development Agency (THDA) has announced a grant for $892,488 for Tennessee’s Community Assistance Corporation (TCAC) that will be used to build affordable rental units for low-to-moderate income residents of Cocke County.
The grant funding will allow TCAC to construct six one-bedroom apartment units off Thinwood Drive that will be rented below market rates. The parcel off Thinwood Drive is a 10-acre tract, and usually six units are put on each acre. TCAC hopes additional funding will become available after the first round of construction so more units can be built later.
“Finding safe, decent housing to rent at an affordable price is a challenge communities across the state are facing,” THDA Executive Director Ralph M. Perrey said. “These funds will help meet that need by providing newly built housing in Cocke County that residents of low-to-moderate income can afford to live in for years to come.”
TCAC Executive Director Krystal Gibbons said the HOME funds will be used to help meet a growing need for rental units that are not currently being built.
The HOME program is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and is administered in part in Tennessee by THDA. THDA provides funding under its HOME Rental Housing Development Program for the new construction and/or acquisition and rehabilitation of rental housing projects that consist of no more than a total of 11 units. Grants are awarded through a competitive application process to Community Housing Development Organizations (CHDO), other non-profit housing developers and public housing authorities in all 95 Tennessee counties.
HOME grants must be used for the production, preservation, or rehabilitation of affordable housing for low and very low income families and individuals.
TCAC hopes to break ground on the apartment units in the near future, and representatives said that the faster those units are built then the faster they can get to work on additional units. Construction will get underway as soon as the utilities are run to the area. The cost of running sewer and water lines to the area has already been covered, TCAC is just waiting for the construction process of running the infrastructure to be complete.
“Rents are crazy right now, and people can’t afford to live,” Gibbons said. “So this is a small-scale, trial run to help those that are in need and ready to move forward and they just can’t. They just need a little bit of help, so THDA is helping us with a huge piece of the puzzle that was missing when it comes to rental housing that people can afford.”
Cocke County Mayor Rob Mathis said the grant will help the county by providing much-needed rental units at an affordable price.
“Cocke County is honored to have an amazing organization such as Tennessee’s Community Assistance Corporation working on mitigating the low-income housing crisis in Cocke County,” Mathis said. “We are extremely grateful for THDA’s funding for this project and very excited to work with TCAC to benefit our Cocke County community.”
Gibbons said the apartments will serve residents making at or below 80 percent of the Area Median Income for Cocke County. Gibbons said the units were also part of a larger strategy by TCAC to help renters become future homeowners. “Our vision for this program is we see it as a road to homeownership,” Gibbons said. “Not every renter is ready to become a homeowner, so we’re hoping to use these rental units to help them prepare through different programs to eventually become a homeowner. Eventually the goal would be to get them into their own home, but we want to be there to give them the assistance they need to get them there.”
Gibbons said interested residents can learn more about the program by contacting TCAC at (423) 586-7636 or visiting www.tcac1.org.
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