Chattanooga parish turns a vacant duplex into four free apartments for young adults leaving foster care

Christ Church Episcopal, a parish in the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee, has turned a long-vacant duplex in its Project Canterbury building into four furnished apartments for young adults leaving foster care. The building is next to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Tenants pay no rent or utilities. Renovations ran from January to September, and clergy blessed the units at a ribbon-cutting on Tuesday, Sept. 29, according to Episcopal News Service (ENS) and the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

The apartments are run with Partnership for Families, Children and Adults, a secular Chattanooga nonprofit. Its Bright Futures program offers transitional housing and life-skills training to young adults aged 18 to 21 who are aging out of care, the group's CEO, Kevin Hyde, told the Times Free Press. He said the program now has 10 beds and that the nonprofit served 59 young adults across its housing programs in the past year. The nonprofit handled the renovation, ENS reported, and members of the congregation of about 60 stocked the units with towels, sheets and cleaning supplies.

The Rev. Will Levanway, the parish's priest-in-charge, said the church had the space but not the money to make it livable. "If we're going to uplift people in the image of God, it has to include their physical, material life," he told ENS. Hyde said young people leaving care often arrive "with not even a suitcase." A first tenant was moving in on the day of the blessing, and ENS reported Oct. 7 that more are expected in the coming weeks.