Eviction Notices Raise Questions About Metro Support for Affordable Housing

Hobson Flats, a complex in Antioch run by Elmington Property Group, is classified as affordable housing. Despite this designation, it’s now facing serious allegations. Local advocacy organizations Poder Popular and Tennessee Student Solidarity Network recently claimed that Elmington has evicted vulnerable tenants, mistreated workers and caused distress through lack of communication and difficult eligibility processes. 

One former Hobson tenant sharing her story with the Scene requested anonymity because of ongoing legal action. She signed up to live at Hobson Flats because of its reputation as affordable housing. 

“What I thought was a blessing turned out to be a nightmare,” she says.

She tells the Scene that when she was unable to pay rent on time, she ended up with a $3,700 bill and an eviction notice. Her original rent was set at $1,200 per month. She reached out to Poder Popular for help when Elmington took her to eviction court last summer. Now organizers from Poder Popular tell the Scene she’s paying off the $3,700 bill in $50 installments. 

This wasn’t the first time Poder Popular encountered evictions at Hobson Flats. After a Black single mother told organizers that Elmington had charged her higher rent after losing her Section 8 paperwork, the group started knocking on doors.  According to documents shared with the Scene, they found a number of others facing eviction. 

“On Monday, October 10, 2022, we visited Hobson Flats and connected with residents,” one document reads. “We found that every resident living in Section 8 or income-restricted apartment reported mismanagement, constant harassment and threats of eviction from [the] management office over minor incidents.” 

In November 2023, tenants also experienced a police raid, with dozens of armed officers storming the complex. Notably, a source tells the Scene that this raid happened around 3 p.m., when children living at the complex were coming back from school. Local labor advocacy organization Workers’ Dignity also raised concerns over Spanish-speaking residents not understanding police announcements before the raid, causing serious distress.

Cases like these led Poder Popular and Tennessee Student Solidarity Network to speak against Elmington at Metro Council’s budget hearings on June 4.

“[Elmington is] not focusing on low-income people,” one speaker said. “They only want their winnings.” 

Other speakers mentioned rent increases, lack of maintenance and reports of worker exploitation. Organizers asked for representation on the Metro Housing Trust Fund Commission (which oversees the Barnes Fund, a Metro housing trust fund) for renters, minorities and working-class people. They also asked for the Barnes Fund to stop funding rental projects like Hobson Flats and instead focus on their other affordable housing models.

The Barnes Housing Trust Fund is Nashville’s largest affordable housing fund. Its funding can go only to nonprofit organizations, though these nonprofits can sometimes partner with developers like Elmington, provided the nonprofit has at least 51 percent interest in the development. Barnes-funded rental units funded before 2020 are required to remain affordable for 20 years; units funded after 2020 must remain affordable for at least 30. Hobson Flats received a total of $2 million in Barnes Fund grants in 2019 and 2020 via Elmington’s partnership with Woodbine Community Organization, as well as federal funding.

Hobson Flats is one of many affordable housing complexes in Nashville that are run using the low-income housing tax credit, or LIHTC, model.

“When you are applying to a LIHTC property, you have to make less than or equal to a set percentage of the area median income,” says Elizabeth Leiserson, director of the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands’ Eviction Right to Counsel program. Unlike other programs like Section 8, which often set rent at 30 percent of an individual’s income, LIHTC sets rent at a flat rate based on the median income earned by households in the region.

“It’s income-limited, not income-based,” Leiserson explains. 

A representative for Hobson Flats tells the Scene that rent for their one-bedroom apartment is currently $1,128 per month; a two-bedroom rents for $1,351. According to the Metro Nashville Planning Department’s State of Affordable Housing dashboard, Nashville’s area median income is currently $74,850; Hobson Flats’ one-bedroom units are considered affordable for a single-person household that earns roughly 60 percent AMI, or $44,950 per year. 

At LIHTC housing, monthly rent can also legally increase not once but twice per year: once during lease renewal, and again when AMI increases. This has put low-income renters in precarious positions, including at Hermitage Flats, another of Elmington’s affordable housing properties. In 2022, WSMV reported that Elmington raised rent for one Hermitage Flats tenant twice in six months.“It’s supposed to be affordable housing,” she said. “What’s affordable? Affordable for who?”

With prices set at a flat rate for everyone and the potential to increase twice a year, it’s not surprising that evictions happen. According to figures shared by Legal Aid, the 323-unit Hobson Flats has filed at least 116 eviction lawsuits since December 2021. Legal Aid has served as representation for 15 of these tenants. 

As head of Legal Aid’s Eviction Right to Counsel program, Leiserson often represents tenants who are overwhelmed and confused by the eviction process. Some of her clients are unaware that evictions are public and remain on your record. The eviction process can be confusing, and it can also be expensive. A recent Tennessee law has made the cost to appeal an eviction prohibitive, particularly for low-income renters: As of 2022, defendants must provide bond equal to a full year of rent if they want to appeal. 

Nashville has a huge deficit of affordable housing. According to Metro’s 2021 Affordable Housing Task Force report, the city needs to build 35,715 rental units for people living at 30 percent AMI by 2030 to keep up with demand. The Barnes Housing Trust Fund website shows that Nashville has built just 1,799 of those units so far. There are deficits in affordable housing for many middle-income residents as well. 

But the situation at Hobson Flats raises some important questions. Does a lower-rate rental make enough of a difference when rent is set as “affordable” based on an AMI of $74,850 and can increase twice a year? Should affordable units have other protections in place to keep low-income renters safe from quickly escalating eviction cycles and legal fees? 

Metro’s Planning Department has recently increased renter protections on Barnes-funded units. There’s a 2023 regulation no longer allowing complexes to raise tenants’ portion of rent midlease, and they hired a compliance monitor in January, Metro Housing Division director Angela Hubbard tells the Scene. They’ve continued to fund other projects, like community land trusts and attainable home ownership funding.

When asked about Poder Popular’s request for working-class and renter representation on the Metro Housing Trust Fund Commission, Hubbard explains that while the actual appointment of people to the MHTFC is up to organizations with spots on the commission, the Planning Department does “robust engagement through many mechanisms” to understand the lived experience of renters and working-class Nashvillians. 

Anyone can make public comments at Housing Trust Fund Commission meetings, and Planning holds regular community listening sessions. But Hubbard still acknowledges that hearing everyone’s voice can be challenging. “I’ve worked in government and housing for 17 years,” she says. “I often find that people that have the most challenging housing journeys are mostly not going to show up at a government-sponsored meeting or conversation.” 

To combat this issue, the Planning Department continues to partner with nonprofits and community groups including the Legal Aid Society and the Tennessee Fair Housing Council. They’ve also recently launched a survey to inform their Unified Housing Strategy.

A representative from Poder Popular, Simon Hannibal, says they will continue to fight for Metro to “have some real community and democratic input of the most directly impacted people.” 

“I think it’s crucial that our elected officials reflect the needs and demands of the people — one of the highest demands being affordable housing,” they say. 

Elmington Property did not respond to the Scene’s request to comment for this story. An administrator at Hobson Flats reiterated that their late payment and eviction policies operate in line with lease agreements.

Publicado por Nashville Scene on July 17, 2024.