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

NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) – Shelby House has opened 195 new affordable housing units that will help provide more people in Nashville with a safe and stable place to call home. It also marked a breakthrough for 4th & Shelby, a mixed-use development that will have 289 more apartments and open in 2026.

Shelby House is open to those earning 30-80% AMI. Those who live there pay no more than 30% of their monthly salary. Studios, one-room and two-room apartments are available for sale. It is currently 73% occupied but is scheduled to be fully leased by the end of the year.

“It’s a drop in the bucket, but it means everything to the families who live here,” Holladay Ventures CEO Evan Holladay said.

This is a big bucket. Developer Holladay says they need to build tens of thousands of affordable apartments over the next five years to meet demand.

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

The city is working on this too – Mayor Freddie O’Connell says they are looking at how to fill this need.

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

Because they say affordable housing affects everyone. When more people are housed here, it has a positive effect on the entire city. Something Holladay says more people are realizing.

“I’ve been doing this for 15 years and I’ve never seen such widespread community support for affordable housing,” Holladay said.

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