1. hope quarterly 13
I
work with numbers. I can
get you the official digits
on all sorts of things you
might want to know.
I can tell you that about 17%
of the homes in the 37404
and 37406 zip codes are cur-
rently sitting vacant. That
less than 50% of the heads
of households in these com-
munities own their homes.
I can tell you that about 60%
of the renters in this com-
munity are paying more than
30% of their annual house-
hold income in rent, which
means they are what HUD
would call “cost burdened.”
I can even tell you that there
seems to be a correlation in
the Chattanooga area that the
higher the percentage of “cost
burdened” renters in a census
tract the more likely it is that
the census tract is predomi-
nately African American. Or
that over 600 units of public 1
housing have been closed in the
past 10 years. We can learn a
whole lot from just considering
2 the numbers, from just read-
ing graphs, from basic counts.
But we cannot learn everything.
We often hear the story told
in the Gospels of Jesus feeding
the 5,000. However, we often
forget that those people were
more than just numbers. The
fact that they are a number, and
a big one at that, is what we
love about the story. But, Jesus
did not stand there and gaze out
and see a spreadsheet that read,
“Hungry Men: 5,000 / Women
and Children Accompanying
Them: Uncounted.” Mark tells
us that Jesus “had compassion”
(Mark 6:34) on the people.
You see, we can be effected by
numbers, but people stir the
heart to compassion. Like the
people who were fed that day
the people in our community
are more than just numbers.
Lives are not easily fit into
quantifying spreadsheets.
Homes are not fully described
by addresses. It takes a lot more
than reading numbers to feel
and understand the effect that
over 2,000 empty homes has
on the safety, aesthetic, and at-
titude of a community. It takes
a lot more than studying to
understand what the “Chatta-
nooga Housing Report” means
by saying that “Chattanooga has
a deficit of over 4,000 affordable
rentalunitsforthosehouseholds
12 hope quarterly
L O C A L
F O C U S
Guest
Count
b y M o l l y K i n g
Owner/Renter Occupied Housing, by Zip Code
In the City of Chattanooga
ZipCode
37421
37419
37416
37415
37412
37411
37410
37409
37408
37407
37406
37405
37404
37403
37402
Tennessee
United States
Source: ACS 5-year Estimates 2009-2013
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
35.1%
32.2%
97.8%
59.7%
53.6%
49.0%
52.0%
61.6%
69.0%
35.3%
68.6%
39.1%
44.2%
45.0%
34.7%
21.6%
36.4%
64.9%
67.8%
2.2%
40.3%
46.4%
51.0%
48.0%
38.4%
31.0%
64.7%
31.4%
60.9%
55.8%
55.0%
65.3%
78.4%
63.6%
Owner Occupied
Renter Occupied
“We can be
effected by
numbers,
but people
stir the
heart to
compassion.”