Seventy public housing units in Oak Ridge have new roofs, new HVAC systems and overhauled interiors, and the families who had to move out during construction are now moving back in. The Tennessee Housing Development Agency and the Oak Ridge Housing Authority marked the milestone on Thursday, capping a rehabilitation effort years in the making for a housing stock that has aged for decades.
The celebration, reported by WVLT, covered work on buildings the housing authority says were built in the 1970s and early 1980s. According to the station, crews installed brick skirting, new windows, Hardie plank siding, new roofs, new HVAC systems, and new interiors featuring luxury vinyl plank flooring, cabinetry, and updated bathrooms and kitchens. The housing authority also rehabilitated community center space as part of the project, per the same report.
A Years-Long Push to Catch Up on Repairs
The Oak Ridge Housing Authority has worked on redeveloping its portfolio for about two and a half years, and substantial rehabilitation of the site began in fall 2025, the station reports. Maria Catron, the authority's executive director, said the housing authority has 128 units spread across eight sites and had previously lacked the funds for substantial rehabilitation. The units are federally subsidized through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Catron told the station the project delivers quality affordable housing while preserving community assets, and she said demand far outstrips what the authority can currently offer — the housing authority has at times had between 1,000 and 3,000 households on its waiting lists, she said. Oak Ridge, like much of the surrounding area, simply does not have enough affordable housing stock to serve everyone on those lists, according to WVLT's reporting.
104 New Units Rising in Scarboro
The rehabilitation of the 70 units is one piece of a larger effort known as the Oak Ridge Preservation Project, which also includes 104 new units under construction in Scarboro. Catron said the Scarboro construction will nearly double the size of that community, and WVLT reports that construction there is expected to finish over the coming year.
Reported project costs for the broader preservation effort vary across outlets. WVLT describes the project as costing a little over $40 million and covering the authority's 128 existing units plus the 104 new Scarboro units. A 2024 report from The Oak Ridger described a $56 million plan to renovate the same 128 units and build the 104 Scarboro units, while a 2025 report from The Courier News put the investment at $64 million for a total of 232 new or renovated units across Oak Ridge. The available reporting does not explain whether the differing figures reflect updated estimates, different project scopes, or different accounting methods.
The Oak Ridger's 2024 report also detailed a separate 9% tax credit award valued at $18 million to help renovate 70 units across four sites — LaSalle Road, Irene Lane, Van Hicks Road and Joel Lane. A separate funding breakdown reported by WATE cited $24.5 million in bonds, THDA-administered low-income housing tax credits, and a Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation BRAG grant as sources of funding for the broader effort. The project overall is financed in part through low-income housing tax credits awarded by THDA, according to WYSH AM 1380.
State Officials Point to a Statewide Affordability Squeeze
THDA Executive Director Ralph M. Perrey said the Oak Ridge proposal scored well in the agency's competitive tax credit program, and that the housing authority had applied to rehabilitate all eight of its public housing sites while also building the new Scarboro units. Perrey said affordable housing for regular working people generally requires subsidy or incentive to get built at all, per WVLT's report.
Perrey tied the local project to a broader statewide housing crunch, noting that roughly 500 people move to Tennessee every day, which he said drives up demand faster than supply can keep pace. “We get 500 people a day moving to Tennessee. And, you know, more demand, less supply,” he said. A National Low Income Housing Coalition report cited by the station found that a Tennessee renter must earn more than $26 an hour to afford a two-bedroom rental, and new construction around Knoxville tends to target a higher price point rather than affordable units.
The coalition's own national Out of Reach 2026 report found that a full-time worker nationally must earn $34.73 an hour to afford a modest two-bedroom rental at fair market rent without spending more than 30% of income on housing. The same report found the average hourly wage earned by U.S. renters was $24.84, nearly $10 short of that national benchmark.
Mental Health Services Return to the Community Center
As part of the preservation project, the Oak Ridge Housing Authority plans to continue its partnership with Ridgeview Behavioral Health Services, which provides mental and behavioral health services through a Peer Support Center at the Joel Lane property. The authority plans to bring Ridgeview back as a community partner in the rehabilitated community center space, according to the THDA release cited by WVLT.
Perrey said THDA is proud to support the housing authority's rehabilitation effort, framing the completed units as part of a broader statewide push to preserve aging public housing stock even as new construction struggles to meet demand. For the families now moving back into freshly renovated apartments, the work represents the end of one phase of a project that, by the housing authority's own account, is still unfolding in Scarboro.
