More than a dozen religious leaders from five countries overcame cultural differences, distance and language barriers Wednesday to talk about their ministries.

Chattanooga Housing Authority's financial health is looking up, according to an independent audit conducted by the Indiana-based McCauley Nicolas CPAs & Advisors.

Ashley Carlisle didn't have to work or pay rent in her former government-subsidized apartment, but having the opportunity to live in Fairmount Avenue Townhomes makes her want to be more self-sufficient.

People who didn't make the cut on the first drawing for apartments in the new Maple Hills and Fairmount Avenue public housing units have another chance today.

The goal for Melinda Doss was to complete the Chattanooga Salvation Army's School of Culinary Arts training and get a job, just as the nine culinary arts students did before her.

Several students who were supposed to be leaders at Orchard Knob Elementary School talked back to teachers and brought cellphones and iPhones to school, but couldn't read on grade level, Principal LaFrederick Thirkill said.

If trends in voter apathy and population changes continue, there may be no black elected members of the City Council by the 2020 census, said NAACP Vice President Joe Rowe.

On most days Justina Anaclerio and Ray Smalley are trying to survive while sleeping under a bridge. But once a week the couple forget their struggles and attend the Salvation Army's acting class at ReCreate Cafe.

For eight years, Mary Lakes lived in and out of shelters, under bridges and in the woods. Today, she is in her first permanent housing in 10 years.

Businessman W.C. Bud Helton wanted to submit a zoning change application for the old 21st Century Academy this month and then purchase the building that has been vacant since 2009.

Cars flowed up and down M.L. King Boulevard during lunch-hour traffic as Jared Story and nearly a dozen Chattanooga Organized for Action and Occupy Chattanooga members chanted: "UBS, step off it. Put people over profit."

Hazel Adams is an Avondale senior resident who has no intention of sitting home alone.

At first almost nobody believed there was a program that would help low- to moderate-income residents make a down payment on a home by giving $2 for every $1 saved.

Boarded-up windows and busted-out walls blemish the 21st Century Preparatory School, making the former magnet school an eyesore in the Brainerd community.

She was a top 10 graduate of Sequatchie County High School, a part-time waitress at Andy's Pizza and a nursing student at Chattanooga State Community College.

From November until March, the Chattanooga Community Kitchen operated nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to provide shelter for more than 100 people who had no place else to go.

There are more empty buildings on East Chattanooga's Glass Street than anything else. Next are clubs, a couple of hair salons or barbershops, corner markets and storefront churches. Of the five Chattanooga homicides so far this year, two were in East Chattanooga.

Paul Rusesabagina saw a spear shoved from the top of a person's body to the bottom; he saw another person tied to a tree with his own intestines.

Chattanooga Housing Authority officials don’t know what the future holds for their three largest and oldest public housing sites, but CHA Executive Director Betsy McCright says the housing agency wants to put the minds of seniors at ease.

A Chattanooga fire captain will read the names of at least 30 people during a memorial service Saturday — all from Chattanooga; all murdered. “So many young black men are dying here for no purpose,” said Chattanooga resident William Green, who lost two nephews to violence.

A Chattanooga Housing Authority official had a curt response Wednesday to Mayor Ron Littlefield's recent assertion that he will not back off from his plan for a mixed-use community on a public housing site in the city.

It started off as another call for roofing repairs, but when Tony Owens and his crew visited Willie Adair, they couldn't just fix the roof and walk away.

At a meeting Monday, the Chattanooga Housing Authority gave a brief presentation about the deterioration of its larger public housing sites, then read written questions that residents and community members submitted about Purpose Built and public housing.

Westside residents last week descended on City Hall on foot and in wheelchairs to protest a proposal for community revitalization that would destroy more public housing.

An angry, frustrated public walked, rode wheelchairs and packed the City Council building on Lindsey Street on Tuesday night to voice their annoyance on housing issues and moving the Bessie Smith Strut.

Karl Epperson, a 65-year-old disabled veteran, travels in a wheelchair because he can't walk and the pollen outdoors gives him breathing problems.

Danielle Ahn and her family hadn’t lived in Harriet Tubman for a year before a boy bashed her son’s head with a rock for refusing to join a gang.

State Rep. Tommie Brown, D-Chattanooga, expressed wariness Saturday of efforts in the state Legislature to toughen penalties for gang crimes. The Tennessee General Assembly is considering whether to include gang violence in crimes that may be prosecuted under the state's Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO.

People who bought homes a decade ago in the Chattanooga Housing Authority's mixed-income development known as the Villages at Alton Park thought they were getting a deal. Now they're not so sure.

Men and women who overcame their own obstacles and then invested in others were recognized Thursday for their efforts. About 200 people filled the Sheraton Read House mezzanine area for the annual Jefferson Awards for public service as Chattanooga Times Free Press President Jason Taylor began the event.

Being in gangs and giving the perception of being a threat can get you killed, say a group of men at Second Missionary Baptist Church.

A Westside resident wrote a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama, asking for the president's support to preserve public housing.

Today, a gallon of milk. Tomorrow, save public housing? A low-income Chattanooga community that hasn't had its own grocery store in two decades is about to get a welcome neighbor.

Chattanooga's public housing of tomorrow won't look anything like it does today, City Council members were told Tuesday.

The Westside Community Association and Chattanooga Organized for Action took their “public housing is not for sale” campaign to the streets Saturday, knocking on doors and asking residents in East Lake Courts, the city’s third-largest public housing development, to join in the fight to save their homes.

Jacqueline Dowell had been a part of the Washington Hills Neighborhood Association for more than three decades, but she had trouble getting some city services until she participated in the Neighborhood Leadership Institute.

In the past eight years, Chattanooga Housing Authority officials have found hundreds of housing tenants deceitfully living in government-subsidized homes while thousands waited for housing.

Residents in South Rome, Ga., worked past fear of the unknown, taking a chance that a group of Atlanta-based outsiders called Purpose Built Communities had a model for mixed-income housing that could improve their quality of life.

The Salvation Army pantry normally feeds about 80 families a month, but it's running out of food.

The Chattanooga Housing Authority’s intent was to encourage mixed-income communities by giving housing preferences to people who had jobs. But some applicants realized they could get a job, move to the front of the waiting list for housing, then quit the job right after they landed an apartment.

Being homeless and just having a job no longer means a person gets top priority for housing with the Chattanooga Housing Authority.

Americans are competing in a global workforce and the Urban League wants to make sure that blacks in America are part of it. The National Urban League took its first delegation of blacks to visit China in 2010.

Chattanooga Police Capt. Edwin McPherson stepped to the podium at Second Missionary Baptist Church with members of his special investigations unit. He had a prepared presentation, but put it aside and said he wanted to speak from his heart.

Federal support for public housing is dwindling, a reality people must face whether they like it or not, Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield told a group of Westside residents Tuesday.

The overall number of homeless people fell slightly in Southeast Tennessee over the past year, but more of those people were in families, according to new figures from the Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition.

Omari Lawson was 12 years old when gang members asked him to join them. He refused. "It wasn't needed in my life," he said. "It would be a bad influence."

Stricter voter identification laws threaten to take away rights that past generations fought for, pastors told about 500 people Saturday at a march and rally to push voter registration and participation.

As many as 500 people gathered in Brainerd on Saturday to rally and march for voting rights.

A museum about black history will be moving through Chattanooga next week.

At 69, Judith Ragon decided to travel to Nicaragua to provide food, medical care and shelter for children who have nothing. “They are so poor. Anything you do for them will make a difference,” said Ragon, now 72, a grandmother and a retired teacher.