NASHVILLE, Tenn. (OSBORNE) -- Nashville’s population continues to grow, and that’s causing housing costs to rise dramatically.
Federal data shows the rate at which Metro’s population is expanding peaked in 2015, but there are still more people moving into the city each year than moving out. That’s allowed property owners to sell homes at ever higher prices and raise rental fees.
Kathy Trawick with the Tennessee Fair Housing Council says those rising housing costs are especially hard on the working poor, college graduates with student loans, and people with disabilities.
“There’s nothing to keep a landlord from going up two or three hundred dollars on the rent at the end of a lease. And I don’t know about you but I couldn’t’ afford a two or three-hundred-dollar increase in rent and we have seen that a lot.”
Trawick says Nashvillians who lose their homes or rentals to rising prices either end up homeless, are forced into unsafe neighborhoods, or move out into neighboring counties.
She says that last option has its own complications.
“Their cost burden is increased on transportation, because how are they going to get back to the job that they’ve had? If their car was barely functional they are not going to hold up to a much longer commute.”
Trawick says the Housing Council can help if your landlord tries to change the rental fee you’re paying, or other terms of your contract, before the lease ends.
She says the council can also help if your landlord tries to pressure you to move out early.
Would you like to contact the Tennessee Fair Housing Council?