5 minute read
Banding Together to Support Nashville
The Quest for Affordable Housing in Nashville
Entrenched in the front lines of ongoing efforts to develop more affordable housing in a steadily growing region, Nashville-based nonprofit The Housing Fund celebrated its 25th birthday in 2021.
Advertisement
Affordable housing was a problem a quarter-century ago. It’s a crisis now.
David Thibodeau, a retired Nashville banking executive, sounded absolutely prophetic when he summed up the need for affordable housing in the city at the time.
According to a 2021 report from Mayor John Cooper’s Affordable Housing Task Force, Nashville needs to create 53,758 units by 2030, and 18,000 of those need to be affordable to households earning 80 percent of the area’s median income level or lower.
Thibodeau remains active on The Housing Fund’s board of directors and strongly believes in home ownership. He and his wife, Jean, have set up a future gift to come to The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee through their estate plan. This gift will establish a fund that includes support for affordable housing, home ownership, and work such as that of The Housing Fund.
The Housing Fund grew out of a community effort, that began with the Nashville Agenda’s planning process in the early 1990s that called for “affordable, adequate and safe” housing as an essential objective for Nashville going forward into the 21st century.
Retail giant Amazon has joined the effort by providing The Housing Fund an additional $1.5 million donation in late 2021 to help housing residents in Nashville. The latest donation comes on top of Amazon’s first contribution of $2.25 million in 2020. The Housing Fund plans to help local residents by easing the tax burden on eligible landlords who are committed to maintaining affordable housing and avoid rent increases for their residents.
Meanwhile, the Amazon Nashville Community Fund was established at The Community Foundation in 2021. This Fund complements Amazon’s larger philanthropic efforts, with the goal to use the company’s ability to innovate quickly to strengthen communities around the world where their employees live and work.
Hope for more affordable housing in Nashville is on the horizon.
“I’m impressed with progress being made around the recommendations in the report provided by the Affordable Housing Task Force,” Marshall Crawford, President and CEO of The Housing Fund, said in an interview with The Community Foundation. “The new Housing Division as part of the Metro planning is a positive step forward for Nashville. There is great energy around the division’s developing a public-facing dashboard that will showcase the affordable housing inventory in the Metro. Also, I am excited about the increase in funding for the Barnes Housing Trust Fund and the strong desire to ensure the preservation of existing affordable housing units.
“Personally, the commitment of nearly $30 million for homeownership through our shared-equity program is my favorite example,” Crawford continued. “In our attempt to address the wealth gap and mitigate housing disparities, we are excited to offer a product we started a decade ago to ensure low- and moderate-income families could achieve homeownership and build wealth. This product provides an immediate 25% return on investment from Day One. We plan to make home ownership achievable and affordable regardless of the the challenges.
Banding Together to Support Nashville During Times of Disaster
Creating a purposeful and reactive mechanism that scales up during an intractable crisis is vital to a healthy and efficient disaster response and recovery.
Across the country, states and communities have been preparing for and responding to disasters through the model of a VOAD — Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster.
The Nashville VOAD had been inactive for many years until the beginning of 2020, when its revival came up in a conversation among several nonprofit leaders trying to identify the best way to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the devastating 100-year flood in early May 2010.
Reconvening the Nashville VOAD quickly became a priority.
The goal: To organize a variety of organizations, both private and public, to actively play a role in how and when a community responds to disaster.
The purpose: To increase the ability of the nonprofit community to coordinate and respond with speed after a disaster.
Today, the Nashville VOAD has made significant strides toward both its goal and purpose through engaging its core group of 41 nonprofit members — The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee among them — while recognizing that bringing in key collaborators is essential to the success of disaster response. Key collaborators include faithbased institutions, neighborhood organizations, and government departments. “The Nashville VOAD has provided a space for a common purpose and allows us to understand the service areas of each member and the service areas,” said Lori Shinton, chair of Nashville VOAD and CEO of the nonprofit Hands On Nashville. “This collaboration is what will enable us all to serve our city when its residents need us the most.”
Nashville VOAD continues to receive executive-level buy-in, as evidenced by leadership and executive committee participation. This high-level participation keeps member organizations engaged, and sustained executive support is key for long-term success and continued development of the coalition.
Established in 2021, The VOAD Leadership Fund at The Community Foundation helps to provide support for the work of the Nashville VOAD and its commitment to best serving the community through all phases of disaster management.
With additional funding, the Fund can continue to grow and sustain the work of Nashville VOAD, which now stands ready to support Nashville through whatever may come.
