Shelby House is one step toward meeting demand for affordable housing in Nashville

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Shelby House opened 195 new affordable housing units that will help ensure that more people in Nashville have a safe, stable place to call home. It also was a groundbreaking for 4th & Shelby, a mixed-use development, that will have 289 more units and open in 2026.

Shelby House is open to those making 30-80% AMI. Those who live there pay no more than 30% of their monthly paycheck. It offers studios, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units. Currently, it is at 73% capacity but is on track to be fully leased by the end of the year.

“It feels like a drop in the bucket, but for the families living here, it means everything to them,” Holladay Ventures CEO Evan Holladay said.

It’s a large bucket. Developer Holladay says to keep up with demand they need to build tens of thousands of affordable units in the next five years.

“We have over 52,000 units that we need in Nashville by 2030, and we are nowhere close to solving that,” Holladay said, “We’re taking incremental steps, but I think we need to take monumental steps forward and being able to put funding forward, zoning, lower barriers to entry. Development is difficult, but affordable housing is even more difficult to figure out.”

It’s something the city has been working on too – Mayor Freddie O’Connell says they’re looking at how they’re going to fill that need.

“We’ve been a growing city for the past decade and more, and that growth has actually increased, so I think it’s going to be a priority for some time to come,” O’Connell said.

Because they say affordable housing affects everyone. When more people are housed, it positively contributes to the whole city. Something - that Holladay says - more people are realizing.

“I’ve been doing this for 15 years and I’ve never seen so much community-wide support for affordable housing,” Holladay said.