Ten local housing nonprofits have announced that they are joining forces to form the Alliance for an Affordable Nashville ahead of the upcoming mayoral election.
Music City has had four mayoral elections in the past decade, and affordable housing has been a top-of-mind issue in each of them. However, that high turnover has created a lack of continuity that has made it difficult to create a longterm vision for housing policy in Davidson County, says Brent Elrod.
“I think it absolutely has had unintended consequences by disrupting any kind of momentum that was being built up under prior administrations,” he said.
Elrod is the managing director of Urban Housing Solutions, which is the largest nonprofit provider of affordable housing in the city.
By forming this new coalition, Nashville’s housing nonprofits are trying to put themselves in a position to set policy priorities for the incoming mayor, getting ahead of the churn of electoral politics instead of reacting to it.
“We really do want to be a resource for the incoming mayor and to help implement new housing policy,” he said.
The alliance will be paying particularly close attention to the redevelopment of the East Bank that is set to accompany the controversial new Titans stadium.
The Alliance for an Affordable Nashville members include Affordable Housing Resources, Inc., Be a Helping Hand, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Nashville, New Level Community Development Corporation, Pathway Lending, Project Return, Rebuilding Together, The Housing Fund, Urban Housing Solutions, and Woodbine Community Organization.
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