In 2019, Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise (CNE) retained CZB to analyze market conditions across Chattanooga and evaluate CNE’s own approach to housing development, homeownership promotion, wealth building, and neighborhood revitalization within that real-world context. The underlying question was harder than it looked: how can a nonprofit support neighborhood improvement that’s genuinely sustained and equitable, rather than a series of disconnected wins?
Conditions varied so much from one part of Chattanooga to another that a single, citywide approach couldn’t work. What CNE needed wasn’t just more activity, it was the right activity in the right places, guided by outcomes that actually mattered: good results for working and low-income households, a municipal policy framework on housing and neighborhoods worthy of a great city, and development that built on genuine market strength while remaining inclusive. That combination pointed CNE toward the strengths-based, demand-based principles of the Healthy Neighborhoods approach.
CZB’s analysis drew on a wide range of data to build a full picture of Chattanooga’s market, its constraints, and its opportunities, including a field survey of individual property conditions across neighborhoods. That method reads simple exterior visual cues, like signs of investment, disinvestment, and pride of ownership, to build a nuanced, block-level understanding of real market conditions rather than relying on citywide averages. That data became the foundation for identifying four Opportunity Areas, recommended as CNE’s starting points for intervention because they aligned directly with the strategic principles and outcomes of the Healthy Neighborhoods approach. The work was delivered in two parts: a main report laying out analysis, commentary, and a new strategic direction for CNE’s full portfolio of activities, and an addendum describing exactly how that new approach could be applied within CNE’s neighborhoods of focus in East Chattanooga.
The Healthy Neighborhoods analysis gave CNE a clear, evidence-based way to decide what to do where, replacing a one-size-fits-all approach with four specific Opportunity Areas grounded in real market data and a property-by-property understanding of conditions on the ground. It also gave CNE and the broader Chattanooga community a shared direction for what the organization’s work should aim to achieve going forward.
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