Metro Nashville Commits $9.4 Million to Affordable Housing

 

Affordable housing in Metro Nashville received an additional $9.4 million boost for 335 new houses and 90 home preservations. Metro Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced these latest funds in a Wednesday press release.

“We know Nashville’s affordable housing needs are urgent, and we know solving this problem requires an all-hands-on-deck approach,” stated Cooper.

The funds came from Barnes Fund grants: a trust fund created in 2013 and named after Reverend Bill Barnes, a local affordable housing advocate.

Nashville’s affordable housing fund now amounts to over $30 million. This latest round of funds will complete the Lanier Park Townhomes for 31 first-time home buyers and seniors looking to downsize; develop two new four-bedroom rental units for women and children; build 32 new family homes near Brick Church Pike in North Nashville; support transitional living and wraparound services for eight women; build 195 new units in a mixed-income community near South Fourth Street and Shelby Avenue; redevelop Mercury Courts near Murfreesboro Pike into a mixed-income, transit-oriented community anchor; and build 67 new units near 40th Avenue North in West Nashville and Elysian Fields Road in South Nashville.

Cooper’s proposed budget, presented last month in his annual State of Metro Address, shared that these affordable housing initiatives were informed by the Affordable Housing Task Force. The price tag on those initiatives came out to an additional $3 million in the operating budget to leverage a plan costing over $30 million.

Cooper’s affordable housing plans also rely on federal American Rescue Plan funds. In total, Cooper stated that the investments would come out to $37.5 million. He recommended further that the city council consider adding tens of millions onto that.

As a staunch advocate for affordable housing, Cooper imposed one of the largest property tax hikes in Nashville history last year: a whopping 34 to 37 percent. After property appraisals came through last month – near the year anniversary of his initial declaration to raise property taxes – Cooper announced that he would be rescinding it.

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Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and the Star News Network. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Public Housing” by the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency.