TN desperately needs more housing. Why would lawmakers sabotage a good solution?

Yahoo

21-04-2025

America's housing crisis is neither a Republican nor a Democratic issue.
Too many families in urban and rural communities and red and blue cities are being priced out of homes because of inflation, high demand, low supply of housing, and, in states like Tennessee, rapid growth year-over-year.
None of this should be a surprise, especially to the Volunteer State's elected leaders, but what is shocking and baffling is that when Tennessee lawmakers passed a $59.8 billion state budget on April 16, they stripped it of a key tool that would have invested in housing that fits the budget of middle-income Tennessean home seekers.
Gov. Bill Lee proposed the $60 million Starter Home Revolving Loan Fund as one of his budget priorities. The plan would have provided 0% interest construction loans to build new homes.
He laid out the idea during his Feb. 10 State of the State address before legislators, saying, "... starter home demand is completely outpacing supply. Today, Tennessee is ranked 5th worst in the nation for the loss of starter homes."
Moreover, he used conservative buzz words such as "fiscally responsible" and "innovation, not ... regulation" to make the concept more enticing to the super majority Republican-dominated legislature.
While lawmakers must balance the budget and cannot pay for every initiative, this is one that should have remained because it would have improved the quality of life and economic independence of so many first-time Tennessee home buyers.
The nonpartisan Nashville-based think tank ThinkTennesee has conducted extensive research on the dearth of housing affordable to middle-income earners.
According to its "Breaking Ground" policy brief, while Tennessee grew by 200,000 residents from 2020 to 2023, the state faces a 120,000-unit housing shortage.
Meanwhile, the Tennessee Housing Development Agency's 2025-2029 Consolidated Plan lays out a needs assessment with these six findings:
"Tennesseans are feeling the impacts of a statewide housing shortage."
"Tennessean renters face higher prices and are increasingly at-risk of housing insecurity."
"Many Tennesseans are priced out of homeownership."
"Populations with special housing needs are increasingly vulnerable."
"The number of people experiencing homelessness in Tennessee is high."
"Tennessee needs repairs and upgrades of its existing housing and infrastructure."
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With all this data, Tennessee lawmakers surely should have made the starter home fund a key priority because the private sector alone cannot fix the affordable housing crisis.
The most recent Vanderbilt Poll released April 4 showed that Nashville residents say they want Mayor Freddie O'Connell to make rent more affordable as one of their top three priorities.
Nashville's boom over the last decade has created a bigger gap between the rising costs of housing and more modest increases in wages. Home ownership is out of reach for residents who make less than the median household income of $75,664, according to the U.S. Census.
When I wrote a column about the 2015 NashvilleNext city planning document, residents considered affordable housing a top issue then.
The need for affordable rental units has only skyrocketed since. In 2018, the need was 31,000 units by 2025. In 2021, that grew to 54,000 units by 2030. Now, in 2025, it is 90,000 affordable units required over the next decade to meet the demand.
While there are important local public and private efforts to build more units accessible to middle-income earners, it is simply not enough.
But it should be no surprise that a majority of lawmakers ignore the people's wishes, at least when it comes to the Vanderbilt Poll.
Despite broad support for Medicaid expansion, lawmakers have rejected calls to cover hundreds of thousands of working poor Tennesseans for over a decade.
In spite of more calls for greater access to reproductive care and exemptions to the state's draconian policies, Tennessee's abortion laws are getting stricter.
Now, regardless of the growing housing needs of residents across all three Grand Divisions, a key tool to help them gain financial stability and build wealth is gone.
This is part of a self-destructive pattern that may seem politically smart, but every-day Tennesseans of all stripes are worse for it.
David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee. He is an editorial board member of The Tennessean. Call him at [phone], email him at [e-mail] or find him on X at @davidplazas or BlueSky at davidplazas.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee lawmakers nixed Gov. Bill Lee's key housing idea | Opinion