Statements
Mission
Urban Housing Solutions (UHS) develops and manages affordable, well-maintained apartments for low income Nashvillians. Understanding that home means more than just a roof over their head, UHS provides a host of services to help our residents live independently, access essential resources like healthcare and transportation, and build strong, resilient communities with their neighbors.
Access to safe, stable, and supportive housing is needed now more than ever in our city. UHS continues to develop high-quality, supportive, and affordable housing for the individuals and families who need it most. With nearly 1,600 homes created and preserved over the last 30 years and hundreds more on the horizon, your support can help us provide more Nashvillians a place to call home.
Background
Urban Housing Solutions, Inc. was founded in 1991 to address Nashville's lack of affordable housing for homeless people. An offshoot of the Council of Community Services, the organization had no significant experience operating or managing affordable housing, much less finding the $1,700,000 needed to buy and renovate its first property, an old motel on Murfreesboro Road called Mercury Courts. With the help of nine local banks and a dedicated councilman, Urban Housing Solutions purchased Mercury Courts and began its rehabilitation. One year later, it opened its doors as Tennessee's largest SRO (Single Resident Occupancy). SROs are efficiency-style apartments designed especially for the homeless and those with very low incomes. UHS later purchased other properties for different target audiences--people living with HIV/AIDS, individuals struggling with mental illness, and people in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. Today, UHS owns and operates 34 properties located across Davidson County. Many properties have a resident monitor who lives on site, but all property management, program administration, and leasing activities occur at the organization's headquarters on Woodland Street. We're able to provide below-market rents through a combination of grants and subsidy programs. UHS also offers a variety of programs and services not typical of other permanent affordable housing providers. It maintains a resident transportation service, which carries people to work, doctors' offices, grocery stores, and social service appointments. On-site service coordinators are available at some of our properties to help residents address mental and physical health issues, obtain basic needs, and navigate government benefit programs. Three of UHS' properties have been set aside for Journeys of Hope, a comprehensive addiction recovery residential program.
Impact
In the beginning, UHS focused on renovating old properties into housing for other populations with special housing needs - including those living with HIV/AIDS, individuals needing mental health support, those struggling with addiction, deaf and hard of hearing adults, and other vulnerable individuals and families. In these partnerships, UHS has provided the "hardware" of housing through its development/property management activities and our team of service coordinators connect residents to the "software" of supportive services provided by other nonprofits and social service agencies.
As Nashville's growth over the last decade has enacted more pressure on the affordability of housing, UHS has increased the scale of its development efforts to meet these needs - focusing on new construction and the preservation of larger apartment communities. Currently, UHS provides nearly1,600 affordable apartments to individuals and families in Davidson County. Over the last 5 years, UHS has developed/preserved more than 700 affordable apartments, with several more projects in our pipeline. In addition, we've bolstered partnerships to continue addressing unmet housing needs and to expand access to essential services like health and transportation, along with neighborhood services through development of mixed-use buildings with "community assets" like clinics, banks, and neighborhood retail. Understanding an unacceptable history of poor health in low-income communities due to the disproportionate presence of environmental hazards, our new construction and recent rehabilitation projects have been designed to meet sustainability standards like Energy Star and Enterprise Green Communities to progress towards a healthier home, community, and planet for all. Where feasible, we integrate renewable energy production with solar panels.
Needs
UHS hopes to create or preserve more than 800 units in the next 5years. This will be a complicated and expensive undertaking that will require more community engagement, as well as staffing and technical expertise to oversee financing, design, and construction of these projects. Furthermore, UHS hopes to expand services, partnerships, and infrastructure to support resident needs to ensure residents can endure economic, natural, and community crises. This includes expanding broadband access, strengthening infrastructure that provides access to key resources, improving disaster response protocols, and advocating and partnering with our local housing authority to expand rental assistance that promotes housing security in our communities. Along with pressures on affordability Nashville's growth highlights transit deficiencies. We will advocate for transit improvements while undertaking our own efforts to create communities that are mixed-use and prioritize transit connectivity, walkability, and accessibility. Finally, we hope to expand the availability and accessibility of resident services. This includes hiring more service coordinators and engaging/developing partnerships that can address diverse needs of our residents and expanding access to health/wellness services.
CEO Statement
UHS formed in May 1991, when Rusty Lawrence, then the director of the Council of Community Services, spearheaded an effort to create Nashville's first permanent supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness. Responding to a critical, unmet need in the community, Rusty secured a rental assistance contract for 100 Single Room Occupancy (SRO) units and helped assemble a partnership of nine local banks to purchase and convert an old motel into Mercury Courts, which became the largest SRO development in the state. With a small staff, UHS slowly built on this initial success to address other unmet housing and community needs across Nashville.
Thirty years later, UHS is a leading nonprofit affordable housing and community developer in Tennessee. We have developed over 1,600 apartments and 27,000 SF of neighborhood commercial space across 34 properties, and we aim to create or preserve another 1,000 affordable homes by 2026. Our team is 3 times larger and growing steadily. When Rusty retired in November, he left behind a legacy of innovative and collaborative action that has served more than 8,000 Nashvillians since UHS' founding. As we prepare for a summer of strategic planning to write the next chapter in the UHS story, we will focus on expanding on this legacy that has set us apart from other housing agencies.
I feel very privileged to be in my position as the managing director of UHS. I worked alongside Rusty Lawrence for over 14 years before he retired, and we had a great working relationship, in part because we have a similar "action bias"; we both share an instinct to start producing visible results when presented with a problem. This drive to produce a tangible solution is what attracted me to housing and community development in the first place.
Board Chair Statement
Urban Housing Solutions (UHS) is Nashville's largest non-profit provider of affordable housing. We own and operate 34 properties with nearly 1600 apartments and 23,000 square feet of commercial space. We work to find creative solutions that serve individuals and families with special housing needs. My involvement with UHS goes back over twenty years. I have served as board chair almost 10 years. My interest, along with all of our board members, advisory members and numerous volunteers, stems from a deep concern for providing housing for our most vulnerable citizens. Interestingly enough, most of our residents (over two-thirds) work. This population simply cannot afford traditional housing in Nashville! Our dedication and commitment is to creatively find ways and resources to help bridge that gap. With all of us, including our staff, this is a passion!
Service Categories |
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| Primary Category: | Housing, Shelter - Housing Development, Construction & Management |
| Secondary Category: | Human Services - Centers to Support the Independence of Specific Populations |
| Tertiary Category: | Mental Health & Crisis Intervention - Substance Abuse Dependency, Prevention & Treatment |
Areas Served
| TN - Davidson |
