*Originally published at local3news.com
Kingdom Partners housing development group was selected by the city of Chattanooga for a grant of more than a million dollars to develop affordable housing units in Chattanooga.
The goal is push out 30 units over a two-year span with the help of churches and nonprofits in the area.
Churches and nonprofits that are interested in developing affordable permanent housing in Chattanooga can apply for funding through Kingdom Partners.
There are three different types of funding that organizations can receive.
“One pool of money is for pre development to see if there is a possibility of building as far as land. We have another pool of money for rehabbing, that’s $30,000 dollars of interest free loans. The third pool is $50,000 dollars of interest free homes to actually build new construction,” Richmond said.
Oliver Richmond is the President of Kingdom Partners.
He said interested organizations must submit proposals for housing development plans.
“Mark from our board, who is leader of housing, will actually help walk you through putting a proposal in. Our executive board will look at the proposals, score them, and determine which projects have a high probability of success that we will go ahead and work with,” Richmond said.
The organizations will be matched with developers and financing partners to assist in the process of rehabbing or building homes.
The affordable housing will be for families living in the area.
“Then they will make those rates affordable based on what the affordable rate is our city. A part of our agreement is they will have to keep that rate for so many years,” Richmond said.
Richmond said this plan will address the critical need for affordable housing in Chattanooga.
“It is unbelievable. We have a number of families that we know that are homeless because they can’t afford to pay the regular rent. They might be living in a hotel with a kitchen, six kids, because rent is averaging close to $1,500 a month. Ours is just a little piece of the big puzzle,” Richmond added.