A bipartisan push for housing reform is dead this year after an attempt to resurrect the bill was unsuccessful.
Sen. Charlane Oliver, D-Nashville, proposed the Homes Not Hedge Funds Act to limit the number of single-family homes developers can buy. After receiving near unanimous support in the Republican-led Senate, the bill died early in the legislative process because Rep. Bo Mitchell, D-Nashville, did not second a motion to hear the bill.
Mitchell told WPLN News he had several constituents and two Metro Nashville council members urge him to oppose the legislation.
“Telling someone who’s worked all their life who they can and cannot sell their home to causes concerns,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said lawmakers should create affordable housing by offering incentives to builders to make smaller, more affordable homes, but Oliver questions why Mitchell didn’t second the motion to hear the bill and then vote against it.
As the Senate representative of Nashville’s largest minority majority district, Oliver said her constituents are uniquely burdened by rent and targeted by Trump administration policies.
“My community is looking for relief,” Oliver said. “As small of an action that Bo Mitchell took, it is a microcosm of the problems we are facing as a party in this country. We are not meeting the moment to do what’s necessary to fight back and be the true opposition party that we need to be to secure wins for our communities.”
Oliver posted on social media after the vote, calling Mitchell a “low-down, backstabbing, misogynistic punk ass b*tch,” and alleging that the move to kill her bill was retribution against its House sponsor, Rep. Aftyn Behn, D-Nashville, who beat Mitchell in the primary for last year’s special congressional race.
Mitchell maintains this was not the case, but after pressure from Democratic leadership — and what he calls “performative politics” — he signed over a different housing bill to Behn so she would have a chance to present the legislation in a House subcommittee. Minority Leader Rep. Karen Camper, D-Memphis, presented the legislation as a co-sponsor, but it was rolled to next year, effectively killing the legislation without it ever being heard in the House.
“Unfortunately, this bill just was caught in the aftermath of a lot of political retribution.” Behn said. “A successful Democratic party is one that delivers for working people and challenges corporate power. And I see this kind of micro strife, if you will, as part of a larger commentary about where we are in the state of Tennessee.”
Oliver began work on the Homes Not Hedge Funds Act last year. Her legislation received surprise support from Republicans after President Trump signed an executive order in January, mirroring her legislation.
After the bill’s second death, Oliver said a Republican colleague in the Senate offered to amend his bill to resurrect Homes Not Hedge Funds, but the bill ultimately wasn’t similar enough to be able to transfer it legally.
“The Republicans in power are never going to let us pass groundbreaking legislation, like Medicaid expansion or universal pre-K or ending the grocery tax,” Oliver said. “But once in a blue moon, they will make sure that we get a win for our district. This was supposed to be the win for my district.”
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