What Nashville’s affordable housing fund has done in its first decade

The Barnes Housing Trust Fund celebrated its 10-year anniversary last week.

The Barnes Fund — the city’s first housing trust fund — helps nonprofit developers build new units that will remain affordable. Named for Nashville affordable housing advocate, the late Rev. Bill Barnes, the fund was created under Mayor Karl Dean in 2013. Since then, it’s grown from $2.7 million to over $150 million.

The fund operates by offering competitive grants to nonprofit housing developers. Over the years, it has increased support from varied sources. In 2015, Nashville’s Metro Council approved dedicated revenue from one penny of the tax Nashville collects from Airbnb hosts. During the pandemic, the fund saw substantial injections into its funding through federal COVID relief. And in 2021, Metro also introduced a new housing division to oversee affordable housing across city government.

At a celebratory event last week, Mayor Freddie O’Connell, multiple former mayors, city officials and housing advocates gathered to celebrate the last decade.

Eddie Latimer, the CEO of Affordable Housing Resources — a nonprofit supported by the Barnes Fund — was one of the selected speakers at the 10-year celebration. He offered a glimpse at how the fund got started, and how, he believes, it should operate going forward.

“It started out sort of as theological social work and with social workers. It evolved into students, and it evolved to outside resources. But really, it never got traction until the government seriously got involved,” Latimer said. “And to quote one former mayor: ‘Government cannot do affordable housing. It never has been able to. It never will be able to. But affordable housing cannot happen without government.’”

Latimer stressed the importance of collaboration between organizations and Metro. And, this collaboration has been key — over the last 10 years, the Barnes Fund has awarded nearly $110 million to 33 nonprofits.

These projects have seen the creation of 3,865 new rental homes, 395 new for-sale homes and the rehabilitation of 460 owner-occupied homes.