Tennessee Voices, Episode 284: Evan Holladay, founder and CEO, Holladay Ventures

As someone who has written about affordable housing for the last five years, I have found it painful to see that the crisis in cities such as Nashville have just worsened over the years.

There are a number of factors from limited housing supply to demand because of a barrage of newcomers and from zoning regulations to recent increases in interest rates making it more expensive to borrow money.

Developer Evan Holladay, founder and CEO of Holladay Ventures, said affordable housing is a "passion and mission" for him, but he prefers to call it "attainable" housing.

Evan Holladay
Evan Holladay

On this episode of the Tennessee Voices video podcast, he spoke further about what he means and he identified the problem and offered some solutions.

Recently, Metro Nashville enacted regulations incentivizing developers to build more affordable housing in multifamily complexes. Holladay's concern, however, is that it usually takes years for those types of projects to go from concept to construction.

In a recent guest opinion column, he wrote: "Attainable housing in our city is possible, but we will continue facing hurdles until more investors, developers and political leaders address the problem at hand."

Op-Ed by Evan Holladay: Creating affordable housing in Nashville first requires a deep dive of the crisis

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About Tennessee Voices

The Tennessee Voices videocast is a 20-minute program, which started in March 2020 and invites leaders, thinkers and innovators who have written guest columns for a USA TODAY Network Tennessee publication to share their insights and wisdom with me and our viewers.

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David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee and an editorial board member of The Tennessean. Tweet to him at @davidplazas. 

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Voices: 'Attainable' housing in Nashville with Evan Holladay