Demolition of Harriet Tubman public housing that once sheltered 400 families halfway done

Demolition continues Monday at Chattanooga's former Harriet Tubman housing complex in East Chattanooga.

Hundreds of East Chattanooga residents applied for demolition jobs on the Tubman project, which promised living-wage jobs to a neighborhood where people needed work.

A total of 14 East Chattanooga residents were hired as laborers by the demolition contractor, Environmental Abatement of Henderson, Tenn. The workers were paid $18.75 an hour.

Two later quit and four were fired because they failed to make daily production goals, said James McKissic, director of Chattanoogas Department of Multicultural Affairs.

He said city officials pulled from the hundreds of East Chattanooga applicants to replace those six workers.

Environmental Abatement also hired three East Chattanooga residents for specialized work such as heavy equipment operators. One of them also quit, McKissic said.

The destruction of Tubmans 440 units plus the 188 units demolished at Maurice Poss Homes in 2005 represent more than 600 units of public housing torn downd in Chattanooga in less than 10 years.

Half the buildings at the former Harriet Tubman public housing development home to generations of Chattanooga's poor are gone now.

And an iron claw is crushing through the brick structures that still stand.

A stream of water is used to reduce the dust particles in the air.

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Demolition of Harriet Tubman public housing that once sheltered 400 families halfway done