As affordable housing and its related challenges—gentrification, preservation, and displacement, for example—become more challenging in Nashville, candidates in the city's 2015 race must take a stand on the issue or risk alienating voters.
"In Nashville's 2015 race for mayor, affordable housing has found its moment," reports Joey Garrison.
"Soaring home prices, rapidly changing communities and a hunger to slow it down have converged with the politics of an election year — thrusting the challenge of protecting and spurring affordable housing into the spotlight."
Garrison goes on to describe some of the conversations taking place among the city's leadership as it tries to maintain the city's prosperous run while still keeping the city accessible to a range of incomes. Earlier this month, for instance, Tony Gonzalez reported on the release of a new study by Professor and Urban Planner James Fraser, who, along with a team of researchers, described the state of the housing market in Nashville as one of crisis.
Garrison also shares the political agenda of local affordable housing advocates:
Affordable housing activists want dedicated funding to replenish the Barnes Fund on an annual basis and a starting point of capital — some say around $65 million — to truly be viable. They've also pushed for a new inclusionary zoning housing policy that would require new large-scale residential projects to include units that are priced for families earning less than Davidson County's median income, which is currently $56,377 for a family of four.
FULL STORY: Affordable housing emerges as key issue in mayor's race
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