The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration has awarded the city of Chattanooga a $500,000 grant to be used for developing strategies around improving workforce outcomes in underserved neighborhoods.
In partnership with Hamilton County, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, Chattanooga 2.0, the Benwood Foundation and the Bethlehem Center, Chattanooga is one of 24 cities awarded the grant and is one of 22 finalists for the Recompete Implementation Grant, which is worth up to $50 million of funding.
Using this grant, the city will analyze the causes of systemic barriers to quality economic and workforce opportunities in the South Chattanooga and East Lake neighborhoods.
As part of the federal Recompete Pilot Program, the city will work with various partners to develop strategies that address barriers to child care, transportation, workforce training and education programs.
The neighborhoods targeted for benefit in this grant have been identified as “persistent poverty tracts” by the U.S. Census due to consistently high rates of poverty. With a median household income of about $10,000 less per year than the median household income of Chattanooga at large, the data supports that residents of these neighborhoods are not able to access jobs that support a living wage.
Using the Recompete Strategy Development Grant, the city will form a group of workforce and economic development experts to generate policy and programmatic tools to solve the problems that hold residents in the South Chattanooga and East Lake neighborhoods back from accessing quality, high-paying jobs.
“Workforce development is fundamental to building stable, resilient and thriving communities,” says Quentin Lawrence, director of workforce development for the city. “If we become one of as many as eight cities awarded the Implementation Grant, we’ll be able to create programming, implement policy changes and develop best practices that will have a significant impact on the quality of life for our neighbors who desperately need these resources.”
Event showcases cleanup at Southside Chattanooga
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Jan. 22 highlighted the cleanup progress at the Southside Chattanooga lead site and over $56 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds issued by the Biden-Harris administration to accelerate the cleanup.
“Southside Chattanooga Lead is one of 28 sites across the region selected to received BIL funds,” said acting Region 4 administrator Jeaneanne Gettle. “Almost $70 million has been invested to address legacy contamination at this site, and $36.3 million of that has come from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This additional investment has allowed the EPA to add additional cleanup crews to expedite the cleanup and address more properties in a shorter period.”
Southside Chattanooga Lead has used Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding since 2022. It’s the largest residential lead site in the region. The site consists of residential neighborhoods and non-residential communal areas (parks, schools, playgrounds, child care centers), where soils have been impacted by lead-bearing foundry material.
As of Jan. 17, 813 properties of 1,346 properties known to have lead concentrations exceeding the site-specific cleanup level have been remediated. To date, 3,032 of approximately 5,424 properties within the site have been sampled. Cleanups are on track to meet or exceed the fiscal year 2024 cleanup goal of 250 properties.