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The Hosanna Community in Hixson has doubled in size.

A new 5,000 square foot house that will be home to eight residents and two staff members was recently completed on Hosanna's seven-acre site north of Chattanooga.

Hosanna Community provides an alternative to a group home for physically disabled but mentally alert adults and is the only facility of its type in Chattanooga. It was founded in 1992 and the first house was completed in 1995 with rooms for eight residents and two staff persons.

The Rt. Rev. Charles vonRosenberg led a service of thanksgiving and a blessing of the new house on June 10. Chattanooga clergy and Hosanna residents, staff, volunteers and board members also participated. The house cost $600,000 to build and was debt-free at the time of its blessing.

The work of Hosanna Community was praised by Joni Eareckson Tada in the spring edition of the Christian Council on Persons with Disabilities journal.

"There are faith-based organizations which are already providing models of congregate living for disabled persons in the community, one of which is Hosanna House in Tennessee,'' she wrote. "Their model is worth taking a look at and one that is worthy of a listening ear at the new White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives."

The houses are similar in design and layout, but the new house has a lower level with a large recreation area that includes an exercise room and also an office for executive director Denise Cavitt. A staircase and an elevator provide access to the downstairs.

A different feature of the new house is a special room for residents' wheelchairs. "So many of them have a motorized chair and they can store them in here and charge the batteries,'' said Molly Miles, a member of the Hosanna board.

Resident and staff rooms, a large living and dining area and a kitchen are located on the main level. A huge stone fireplace dominates the living room.

Residents furnish their own rooms, Mrs. Miles said. "They can make it theirs and more like home.'' Staff rooms are furnished.

The new house is situated above the older house and "sits beautifully on the lot,'' Mrs. Miles said. A balcony runs around the exterior and allows a good view of the land and house below.

Eventually, Hosanna would like to obtain money to put a walkway between the houses.

Gene and Cherie Roberts, communicants of St. Peter's, Chattanooga, chaired the fund-raising campaign for the second house. Total funding included a $250,000 grant from the Tennessee Housing Development Agency and gifts from several Chatta-nooga based foundations.