Nashville Mayor Announces Plans To Build Two New Affordable Housing Developments

The mayor’s office announced plans to build two new affordable housing developments in North and East Nashville. It’s the first step in Mayor David Briley’s Under One Roof plan—to spend $500 million building affordable housing over the next decade.

Totaling 140 units, the apartments will be built by the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, or MDHA, on existing public housing sites.

Briley says the units are part of a bigger city vision to create communities filled with varying income levels.

“It’s helping MDHA move forward to build mixed-income communities that are more successful without displacing anybody in our existing communities, doing more to protect gentrifying neighborhoods from displacement,” Briley said.

Officials say the city will spend $25 million on the projects. The funding has already been approved by Metro Council in the current budget.

One development will be built in Cheatham Place, a public housing complex off Rosa Parks Boulevard. Comprising 100 units it’s being called the Randee Rogers Apartments. The second development, 40 units, will be built in the James Cayce Homes off Shelby Avenue in East Nashville.

In recent years MDHA has embarked on an ambitious overhaul of public housing — known as the “Envision” projects — that aims to re-develop thousands of units of aging public housing into mixed-income communitities.

The Cayce Homes in East Nashville are the first to begin the process and for the past year have been under major renovations as part of the Envision Cayce process. The additional units are part of the master plan. But with the additional funds, they are able to be built earlier than expected, according to an MDHA spokeswoman.

Officials say that construction on the projects will begin later this year and apartments will be available in 2021.