Metro released a comprehensive Unified Housing Strategy (UHS) earlier this year, which outlines seven strategies, 43 action steps, and an accompanying implementation plan. The UHS aims to provide a comprehensive roadmap for addressing Nashville’s housing needs within the next 10 years.
Nashville property is getting more expensive, as proven by the 45 percent median increase in property values over the last four years, according to Metro’s press release about the UHS.
“With the release of the Unified Housing Strategy, Nashville now has an implementation plan where our collective work can result in a future where all Nashvillians have access to a safe, stable and affordable place to call home,” Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell said at the time of the release in late April.
The UHS builds on a foundation of existing and ongoing efforts, including the 2021 Affordable Housing Task Force Report, by providing clear implementable steps to strengthen housing security in Nashville. Developed through extensive community engagement and rigorous analysis, the UHS reflects the lived experiences and priorities of residents. In the summer of 2024, community members shared their housing concerns, challenges, and hopes through surveys and listening sessions. Additional input came from key stakeholders — such as legal experts, developers, nonprofits, and financial institutions — through roundtables and interviews.
The UHS is bigger than just another housing strategy. It is a political commitment from O’Connell, who, during his first year in office, prioritized his transit plan called Choose How You Move and has now shifted his focus to the housing crisis.
One thing we know about O’Connell is that when he concentrates on something, he does his homework and demands results.
Angie Hubbard, Director of Metro’s Housing Division, which spearheaded the creation of the UHS, said that it was, “Metro’s first comprehensive housing strategy that looks at the city’s housing crisis from all angles — from how much housing needs to be created and preserved to particular challenges residents encounter in their housing journeys.
“Factors contributing to Nashville’s housing issues are complex and long-standing and cannot be solved by a single tool or policy change — or by Metro alone,” Hubbard said.
The UHS is a living document, a starting point, that outlines existing and ongoing efforts to address Nashville’s affordable housing crisis within the given political parameters. The state legislature has preempted tools such as mandatory inclusionary zoning, impact fees, or rent control that would make it easier for local jurisdictions to build more affordable housing.
Now, months after its release, I have spoken to several community members in Nashville’s housing sector about the UHS. The feedback has been mixed. Overall, the general feeling is that people want to see action and are tired of yet another plan.
Generally, I see strategic plans as useful tools, and I love working with organizations on them because when they are done well, they do outline clear milestones and help create progress. On the flip side, some of them, when they are done in a comprehensive way — like the UHS — take time. Consequently, people are tired after a long planning process and all they have to show for is a written document. The UHS took about a year to write. In the end, we have high expectations and are disappointed when we do not find the quick fix we hoped for.
In the case of the UHS, which follows Nashville’s 2021 Affordable Housing Task Force Report, Nashville showed that the city has not made much progress since 2021 in terms of catching up on the housing front. The 2021 plan outlined the need for an average of 5,250 housing units per year to meet the housing demand — or a total of more than 52,000 new units by 2030.
Four years later, the UHS is calling for 90,000 units in the next 10 years. UHS states, “Using a jobs-based methodology, the UHS team anticipates Nashville needing an additional 90,000 new homes over the next ten years to accommodate for population growth which is expected to grow by over 175,000 people in this time frame.”
In other words, we now need about 9,000 new housing units per year to meet the demand.
But the UHS report is more detailed and clearly outlines that over half of the new units should be for sale. One reason is that homeownership production has lagged behind since the Great Recession, which lasted from December 2007 to about mid-2009. Secondly, a good portion of recent newcomers to Nashville prefer to own rather than rent.
The UHS lists seven specific strategies, which are expected to remain constant over the next decade (for a full summary of each strategy, visit the UHS document on nashville.gov):
Enhance and align Nashville’s housing ecosystem to comprehensively and collectively address Nashville’s housing needs.
The goal is to improve coordination among key stakeholders and foster collaboration with private sector partners. One of the actions listed is to establish a staff position within the Mayor’s Office to help with coordination, alignment of budget requests, and increased accountability.
My fear is that having a term-limited position within the Mayor’s Office will limit sustainability. Furthermore, it emphasizes the top-down hierarchy that has strengthened over the past two administrations to the detriment of building a more collaborative spirit across Metro departments. Based on my experience and observations in the homelessness field, I don’t think one person can do this task within the current administration at the level that is needed. Politics and bureaucracy may get in the way.
Optimize and grow financial and resource support for affordable housing across public, private, and philanthropic sectors.
Calling for cross-sector financial strategies is nothing new. Nashville has been creative with the development of a Catalyst Fund, which is housed at the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. Nashville’s Payments-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) program managed by the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA) created about 10,000 affordable apartments between 2016 and 2024. And, according to Metro, the Barnes Fund has invested over $108 million in affordable housing development and preservation since its inception in 2013. It leveraged more than $1 billion of federal and private investments to build over 4,700 housing units.
This second strategy supports the continuation of some of these tools and calls for the exploration of new funding sources for affordable housing and homelessness services. My biggest criticism is that after a year of study, I would have liked to see more concrete language in the UHS that point to specific actions and implementations, which I am sure are already underway. Especially in the homelessness sector, the opportunities provided by the millions of federal and Metro funding of the past couple of years should have resulted in a specific Metro plan to outline ongoing housing creation for people experiencing homelessness. But Metro only adopted and points to a community strategic plan that does not outline clear goals either.
Create a range of new and affordable housing choices for all Nashvillians as appropriate across the county.
This is the strategy that I believe Nashville’s low-income housing advocates have mostly focused on, namely, to preserve and build more rental options for low-income households.
The biggest discussions (and fights) that we read about frequently in the news are consistently around the efforts to adjust zoning and land-use policies, which are needed if we want to build a Nashville for all Nashvillians.
Keep homeowners in their homes and create more opportunities for sustainable homeownership and wealth creation.
The UHS report recognizes that home ownership in Nashville has increasingly become out of reach for households with an income below $100,000 and minority communities.
I believe to create more homeownership opportunities, especially for vulnerable households, we need to learn to build sustainable neighborhoods that retain or regain mixed-income households. The key is to build quality assets such as great neighborhood schools, access to healthcare, jobs, and housing.
In previous trips to Charlotte, N.C., I learned that even intentional community building is followed by gentrification as neighborhoods become more desirable. Thus, this strategy to support first-generation homebuyers and assist more people to overcome barriers to access mortgages while also helping neighbors remain in their homes is crucial to building truly mixed-income households where everyone can thrive.
Create permanent housing options for persons experiencing or at-risk of homelessness.
Key actions in this strategy are the advancement of the Homelessness Planning Council’s (HPC) Strategic Plan, “increasing the availability of vouchers for individuals experiencing homelessness, and exploring funding sources for rental assistance and services.”
I believe Metro should start by outlining in a transparent manner how the city intends to invest its $11 million in annual Metro budget dedicated to the Office of Homelessness (OHS) and how to measure progress for those investments. Then OHS can show how it fits into the overall strategic community plan adopted by the HPC.
The past few years have shown that when we invest millions of dollars in federal and Metro funding without transparency and clearly outlined performance measures, we may not serve as many people as we could have. Specifically, OHS own data clearly show that the housing placement rate has not significantly increased since 2021.
With the federal government likely to cut spending for permanent supportive housing and shifting to financing more temporary solutions, the city does have a chance right now to demonstrate how it steps into that gap. We also anticipate that federal rent subsidy programs could be significantly cut, which calls for the creation of a local rental subsidy program. These could have been clear action items included in the UHS.
Finally, the UHS calls for the development of yet another strategic plan for Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH). Rather than wasting time for another study, OHS should show leadership and work closely with private developers. In reality, we could already have three “Strobel Houses” (instead of one), totaling about 340+ PSH units (instead of 90) if we had the vision and leadership at OHS and Metro to implement more homelessness solutions.
Preserve and protect long-term housing affordability and stability.
As with many of the other strategies, Nashville has been talking about the protection of affordable housing units for a long time. I recall discussions years ago about how we establish a database that allows Metro Council to monitor the net loss/gain of affordable housing units. Nothing has panned out so far. I have hope that including this and other strategies to preserve affordable, low-income housing will lead to a realistic and sustainable effort.
Strengthen housing security for renters and improve access to resources for all Nashvillians.
With the federal administration’s attack on low-income households, we may feel a little discouraged that the action items under this strategy will successfully be implemented.
However, that’s where the UHS report could shine. Namely, it is up to local governments to step in where the federal government and state step out. We can reach out proactively to Nashvillians and let them know what housing supports are still available, how to access them, and we certainly have the opportunity to dismantle some of the stringent bureaucratic measures that have over the years become barriers to accessing help. It is an opportunity to create efficiencies and leverage existing resources better.
Overall, the UHS is a readable, educational tool that is accessible and understandable for folks who are relatively new to the affordable housing discussion. What is crucial though is that we move from planning to implementation.
Recent efforts in Chattanooga, which resulted in the passage of Tennessee’s Attainable Housing Incentives Bill of 2024, allowed Chattanooga’s City Council to approve voluntary housing incentives to developers.
Now, Chattanooga offers developers that build housing units priced for households making 80 percent of AMI or below, a 30-percent density bonus within the same building, reduced parking minimums, and a 30-percent height bonus in designated areas. I recall that similar bonuses Nashville offered in the past did not seem to be viewed as attractive to many developers. But with the UHS to help outline how to leverage resources better and encourage more public-private partnerships, the tide may be turning.
To view the full document including a 10-year implementation plan, visit https://www.nashville.gov/departments/planning/housing-division/unified-housing-strategy.