City officials, project partners and community members gathered Oct. 30 to celebrate the “topping out” of Espero Chattanooga, a $21 million supportive housing development that will provide affordable homes for people with serious mental illness.
The ceremony marked completion of the building’s exterior structure at the site on 1815 East Main Street. Attendees signed a commemorative section of drywall that will be displayed inside the building after construction is complete. Espero – Spanish for “hope” – is scheduled to open in spring 2026.
Developed by the AIM Center in partnership with Vecino Group, the City of Chattanooga, the Tennessee Housing Development Agency, the Chattanooga Housing Authority and the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, the project will create 60 permanent supportive housing units.
At least 19 units will be reserved for individuals who are justice-involved or chronically homeless and living with serious mental illness. Those apartments will serve residents earning at or below 30% of the area median income, as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Partnerships and perseverance
AIM Center board chair Ashley Wolfe Evans opened the event by thanking the many public and private partners who helped move the project forward through years of planning and challenges.
“We gathered here a little more than a year ago,” Evans said. “It was dark and wet. But even on that dreary September morning, we felt that we could finally start to see the light at the end of a very long tunnel. Today, that light and the work that it brings is closer than ever.”
Evans acknowledged the setbacks the project faced, including leadership transitions, the COVID-19 pandemic, rising construction costs and economic uncertainty.
“To say we were discouraged from time to time would be quite an understatement,” she said. “But the light that kept pulling us forward was not a wish that things would get easier. It was holding fast to the belief that good people working together can and will make good things happen no matter how hard it gets.”
Evans said the building is more than a physical structure.
“What Espero Chattanooga means for the individuals who will call this place home is not that the rain clouds will never come again. It’s that the sun will always be there for them – no matter what.”
A city partnership
Chris Anderson, senior adviser to Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly, spoke on behalf of the city. Anderson said the project reflects Chattanooga’s collaborative approach to addressing housing and public health needs.
“This project is a big step forward in addressing mental illness and homelessness – two pressing issues desperately in need of remedies. Chattanooga has a tradition of public-private partnerships that turn ambitious ideas into reality and are key to driving meaningful change.”
Anderson credited the AIM Center and its partners for creating a model that combines housing with access to supportive services.
“When this project is complete, it will reduce cycles of instability and frequent hospitalizations and offer the stability needed to access consistent care. Together, we’re building a stronger, more compassionate Chattanooga.”
Support from state housing agency
Katie Moore, representing the THDA, said the state was proud to help fund Espero Chattanooga through low-income housing tax credits and other resources.
“If there was something good that came out of COVID, it was additional funding for projects like this. We’re grateful to have been able to help get this project to where it is today.”
THDA’s support, she said, reflects its mission of expanding affordable and supportive housing statewide.
“We believe in strong communities and helping our neighbors – and we particularly believe in partnerships,” Moore said. “Thank you for bringing projects like this to communities and for making Chattanooga stronger.”
Developer perspective
Theresa Bridgeforth, asset manager with Vecino Group, the project’s development partner, called the milestone a reflection of collaboration and shared purpose.
“This topping out ceremony isn’t just about construction progress. It symbolizes our vision and the partnership becoming reality. Espero Chattanooga is more than a development project – it’s a mission brought to life.”
Vecino Group, a national developer specializing in affordable and supportive housing, is working on its first Chattanooga project through the AIM Center collaboration.
“At Vecino, we often say we don’t just build housing, we build purpose,” Bridgeforth said. “Today’s milestone is proof that when we build, we build for the greater good.”
AIM Center’s mission
AIM Center President and CEO Anna Protano-Biggs closed the ceremony by dedicating the project to the organization’s members and residents, many of whom attended the event.
“While everything we’re celebrating today might feel inevitable, there were moments along the way when it was anything but,” Protano-Biggs said. “In those moments, I drew inspiration from the people who give AIM Center its purpose – our members and our residents. Every single day, they remind us what courage looks like.”
Protano-Biggs said Espero Chattanooga was conceived to address a persistent gap in Chattanooga’s housing system.
“The idea for Espero Chattanooga was born out of a crisis that was breaking our community’s heart – the cycle of homelessness, incarceration and emergency care that far too many people with serious mental illness are trapped in. We were confronted with a question that was both practical and moral: How do we break the cycle?”
The AIM Center’s answer, she said, was to provide stable housing as a foundation for recovery.
“We stop the spinning by giving people a place to stop moving, a place where they can simply be – a place to rest, to rebuild and to belong.”
Protano-Biggs said the project extends the AIM Center’s long-standing mission to “create hope, community and social change to enrich and celebrate the lives of people living with serious mental illness.”
“Community itself is therapy,” she added. “When people have a chance to work, to learn, to contribute and to be seen as valuable members of something larger than themselves, healing happens. That’s what happens every day at the AIM Center, and that’s what we’re extending here at Espero Chattanooga.”
Looking ahead
Construction on Espero Chattanooga is expected to be completed by spring 2026, with the first residents moving in soon after. The building will include a community space and garden area supported by the Lyndhurst Foundation.
The AIM Center, founded in 1989, operates as Tennessee’s only accredited psychosocial rehabilitation program recognized by Clubhouse International. Its services are designed to help individuals with serious mental illness achieve recovery, build relationships and reintegrate into society.
For information about Espero Chattanooga or future housing applications, interested individuals can contact the AIM Center or visit AIMCenterInc.org.