A new approach on affordable housing advanced this week in Nashville. The Metro government gave 15 vacant properties to a nonprofit that will help create low-cost, single-family homes.
Over the next year, homes will be built on parcels across the city, including several in North Nashville, and in Madison, Old Hickory and Bellevue.
What’s unique is that the buyers will purchase only the structures, not the land beneath, “making that structure more affordable, by separating out the land,” says Marshall Crawford, CEO of The Housing Fund. That’s the nonprofit that is receiving the properties from Metro.
The Housing Fund will own and lease the land in what’s known as a “shared equity” arrangement. The fund will also offer homebuyer education.
The Metro Council approved the land gift on Tuesday by declaring the 15 properties as surplus. They were collectively valued at $88,000.
More:
Read the council bill and property list.
The move comes nearly three years after Metro first decided to approach affordability this way. Crawford said there’s also substantial work to do before anyone gets into one of these future homes — including educating lenders, homebuilders and future residents — and Crawford said there aren’t any additional Metro parcels identified for the program.
But he said he’s happy to get started.
“The community land trust is not the silver bullet out that there that’s going to address all of affordable housing issues,” he said. “It is really just a part of the puzzle.”
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