In a fascinating presentation and discussion last Thursday, Matt Wiltshire, president of Pathway Housing Fund (PHF), Senior Vice President at Pathway Lending, and candidate for mayor in the last Metro election, educated the members of the Catholic Business League on the reality of affordable housing in the area, beginning with the most basic question:  what is the definition of affordable housing? The answer: housing that requires no more than 30% of your annual income. That means the affordable housing issue affects those making $20,000 a year, those making $50,000 a year and those making $200,000 a year.  

Matt talked about the issue in Nashville being one of variety…having housing that meets the needs and the budgets of Nashvillians across the city. While he acknowledged that there is a significant shortage of affordable housing – as much as a 30,000 unit shortage – we are seeing improvement. One thing that is helped is the addition of hotel rooms. Nashville added the second most hotel rooms in 2024 of any city in America, only behind New York City. That’s meant that there are more hotel accommodations for tourists and a lesser need for short term rentals. He also pointed to efforts by developers and lenders to focus attention on the need, helping to provide the supply to meet the growing demand.

In his professional roles, Matt sees PHF as one of the many solutions to the affordable housing shortage.  PHF is a nonprofit community-development financial institution based in Nashville. PHF utilizes low-cost capital and public-private partnerships to acquire naturally-occurring affordable housing properties in Tennessee that are at risk of becoming unaffordable due to gentrification.

Thanks for the discussion, Matt. We enjoyed having you at CBL.