With Mayor Briley Defeated, His Affordable Housing Plan May Be Too

One of Mayor David Briley's defining programs was his ambitious plan to build more affordable housing. Known as Under One Roof, it committed half a billion dollars to the effort.

But after Briley lost in a landslide to Councilman John Cooper, the plan is likely to be scrapped.

Mayor-elect John Cooper has called the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency the city's "least transparent agency." He was a regular observer at its monthly board meetings, where he'd sit scrawling notes on a legal pad, his brow furrowed.

So when Mayor David Briley decided to offer MDHA $350 million in city money over a decade, to help overhaul Nashville's public housing, Cooper balked.

"I share the aspirations," Mayor-elect Cooper said in an interview with WPLN. "But maybe not some of the implementation."

Briley's proposal also called giving $150 million in tax dollars to the Barnes Fund, a pool available to private developers of affordable housing. And Briley wanted the private sector to chip in.

But Cooper criticizes the plan as lacking details.

"It never was much of a program, really, to begin with," Cooper said. "It was kind of a one-page press release that was very aspirational."

While Cooper knows that building more affordable housing is necessary, he says he's unsure if MDHA should be the one to do it with taxpayer money. He's called for setting up a new city department.

MDHA's chief, Jim Harbison, is well aware of Cooper's feelings, and while he's unsure of what the future holds, he's ready to try to make his case to the new mayor.

"We work hard to convince them of what we're doing here is the right path for the city," Harbison says. "We obviously support the Under One Roof plan, but that said, it isn't our plan."