About 50% of Nashvillians are paying too much for housing, yet one of the city’s key strategies is falling short

In its first meeting in December, Nashville’s Metro Council will decide whether the city should put $10 million in federal COVID-19 relief into the city’s fund for affordable housing.

Over six years, Nashville has funded about 2,200 affordable units using money from Barnes Housing Trust Fund. Of those, 1,083 units have been completed and submitted for people to move in.

The mayor’s office tells WPLN News another 661 are under construction and 558 are in the pipeline to be developed, which all have varying timelines depending on the development size and the grantee receiving the money. These figures don’t include units being rehabbed.

On the other hand, the mayor’s task force report says the city needs to be creating at least 1,500 units per year.

The Barnes Fund is key for the city since the dollars that go are combined with additional federal, state and philanthropic money.

Nonprofit housing developers, like Urban Housing Solutions and Renewal House, leverage the city’s Barnes Fund to take out more debt to create or preserve affordable housing.

That’s important since almost 70% of Nashville residents qualify for workforce or traditional affordable housing. With stagnant wages and rising costs it’s likely that number could increase.

Typically, the city puts about $10 million into the fund each year, which supports about 500 units. During the last budget year, the city spent $12.5 million from the operating budget (BL2021-736.) A staffer from the mayor’s office says that precedent could help them get the same amount this upcoming budget season unless another area of need wins out.

When the mayor was running for office, he promised he would work with the community to create a dependable funding source for Barnes.

“The Barnes Fund has done great work, but the fundings is too unpredictable from year to year,” he wrote as he called out former Mayor David Briley at the time.

The mayor’s office says it’s currently working with the finance director to figure that out.

That’ll be essential if the city wants to support residents who are struggling to live in the city and their desired neighborhood.

The mayor’s ask for money comes as the council considers a proposal to create an independent housing department (BL2021-971), as the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency gets a new director and as. the Metro Action Commission is working to get renters more COVID-19 relief money.