Staff Photo by Tim Barber Joe Clark, president of the residents association at Boynton Terrace Apartments, says people in wheelchairs need automatic doors to gain entry to the buildings in the complex. "It took four years to get the speed humps in the road so the high-rise residents could get over here for lunch," said Mr. Clark.

Jeff Taber, who uses a wheelchair because he can’t use his right leg or arm, says he’s able to get into his bathroom at Boynton Terrace Apartments but has trouble getting in and out of his building.

And at least twice a month, his entry-key card doesn’t work on the basement floor where his room is. So the 50-year-old stroke survivor must roll himself up a hill to the next door at the Chattanooga Housing Authority building.

“It becomes a hardship to do that,” he said.

He said it’s especially difficult on days when he’s trying to carry groceries.

Because of the building’s lack of handicap accessibility, some residents at Boynton Terrace were hoping to speak with officials at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, who were in town this week.

HUD officials were conducting compliance reviews at CHA developments to see whether they adhered to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. As part of the survey, the officials did on-site interviews with residents Thursday.

But Joe Clark, the president of the Boynton Terrace Resident Council who has complained for years about the lack of handicap accessibility at the building, said no one talked to him.

Keith Richardson, HUD’s field liaison and acting field office director, said the compliance review is conducted annually at various housing authorities throughout the region. He said he didn’t know how many residents were interviewed.

Bill Lord, CHA’s chief information officer, said the plan was for the HUD investigator to visit all the sites between Tuesday and Thursday. The investigator visited several sites, Mr. Lord said, but he’s not sure if Boynton was one of them.

It will be about 30 days before HUD publishes the compliance review results, Mr. Lord said.

Mr. Clark is inviting HUD officials to attend the next Boynton Resident Council meeting so they can hear residents discuss their concerns about broken elevators and the need for automatic doors.

Boynton Terrace is one of three public housing sites and five subsidized housing complexes in the Westside community. The area includes about 3,500 residents, with people 50 and older or disabled accounting for one-third of the population, housing officials have said.

Naveed Minhas, CHA’s vice president of development, said the housing agency is applying for $15 million to $20 million in federal stimulus money. The money will be used to renovate current public housing, build new housing and to make 35 units at Boynton handicap accessible. If the grant is awarded, the money also will be used to install automatic doors at Boynton, he said.

“We have always had funding issues,” he said. “The needs are far greater than the money we get.”

Boynton resident Willie Mae Smith, 87, said she is concerned about her disabled friends who live on the upper floors at Boynton.

“People are on walkers, people are crippled and the elevator stays broke down all the time,” she said.