By: Robin Ford Wallace, Reporter

Auburn Ridge manager Marsha Allen (see associated article) pointed the Sentinel to another tax-credit – or public/private, subsidized-rent – apartment complex in Trenton, Mountain View. 

Mountain View, just off 136 East in the Glenbrook neighborhood, has been around for 30 years now, says manager Lacy Hoover, but had to be gutted and remodeled after the tornados of April 2011. As some readers may have picked up from the address, the complex was smack-dab in the path of the most destructive of the three storms.

 Mountain View is family-friendly, which can be readily perceived via the swing sets and children’ play area outside the complex. As at Auburn Ridge, a certain number of apartments are set aside for tenants who qualify under low-income guidelines. “If your income is low enough, you could live here for $50 a month,” said Ms. Hoover.

Other units in the complex are not subsidized but still affordable. “If it’s not income-based, it ranges from $407 to like maybe $604,” said Ms. Hoover. 

Like Ms. Allen at Auburn Ridge, Ms. Hoover is proud of Mountain View’s quality. Asked to describe the apartments – the Sentinel was talking about the economic structure – she replied,: “They’re very good apartments.” 

And also as at Auburn Ridge, Mountain View is a popular place to live. Ms. Hoover says the complex is required by law to put an ad in the local paper once a year but would have no problem staying tenanted without the effort. “We fill them up pretty quick,” she said.

She says people who make $200,000 a year might not need this kind of housing. “But like a normal person, just having a regular job, sometimes you struggle,” she said. “That’s what we’re here for, instead of charging $700 a month rent.”

Auburn Ridge and Mountain View are the only two tax-credit, public/private housing the Sentinel found in the area for families, but Trenton also boasts two sizeable private complexes that cater to the general public.

Town Creek Apartments on Highway 11 South rents two-bedroom, two-bath apartments for $440 per month each.

And Cherokee Village, off 136 East at the foot of Lookout Mountain, offers two-bedroom, one-bath apartments of 900 square feet each for $475 a month with a six-month lease, $450 monthly with a year’s lease.