Street View is a monthly column in which we’ll take a close look at development-related issues affecting different neighborhoods throughout the city.
In many ways, Daniel Faulkner has a classic Nashville story. Known by his stage name Danny Nova, Faulkner moved to the city looking for more opportunities for collaboration after beginning his music career in New Jersey. He bounced around between a few apartments before renting a place in Berry Hill in 2017. He sublets some rooms in his house, advertising them as longer-term rentals on Airbnb and looking to attract fellow creative types.
In August, he got a letter from the Metro Department of Codes and Building Safety telling him he was operating a boarding house.
The letter, which Faulkner has shared with the Scene, is addressed to his landlord and references Faulkner’s multiple Airbnb listings. “Notice!” The letter reads. “This property is operating a boarding house without permits. Please remove all ads and stop renting 30 night single rooms.“
Faulkner rents a four-bedroom house and sublets two to three bedrooms on a month-to-month basis, he says. Right now, his roommates include a saxophone player “who’s a teacher during the day” and a violinist who also works as an administrator. Faulkner tells the Scene he’s intentionally renting to people for lower rates to help them get ahead in an increasingly expensive city. “I rent to financially struggling people who can’t afford to live on their own,” he says. “Their stated income level doesn’t allow them access to apartment complexes who require proof of high income.”
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“Musicians and struggling artists are left out in the cold, so to speak,” Faulkner says. “They find themselves living in their cars or living on the street unless they happen to come across someone like me who doesn’t require a credit score or large deposit to rent a safe and secure house-share room.”
Faulkner tells the Scene he rents the rooms for between $800 and $1,100 a month, including all utilities.
Even though Faulkner’s arrangement might work well for artists who are new to town, the Codes Department does consider it a boarding house. Bonell McBroom III, short-term rental permits chief with Metro Codes, explains that Nashville’s short-term rental ordinances do not allow “simultaneous rental to more than one party under separate contracts.” Faulkner got around this by advertising the rentals for more than 30 days at a time. But then he ran into a new issue: The city’s definition of a boarding house, according to Metro, is “a building arranged or occupied for lodging, with or without meals, for compensation and not occupied as a one- or two-family dwelling.”
“To obtain [a short-term rental property] permit the dwelling is also required to have a home inspection which is also conducted in accordance with the Code sections in the attachment,” McBroom explains in an email to the Scene. “Mr. Nova’s rental activity is considered as a ‘Boarding House,’ not an STRP. For this reason, Mr. Nova has been asked to obtain the proper permits to operate a Boarding House. He has not complied.”
McBroom pointed to Faulkner’s multiple listings on Airbnb, noting that he is listing rooms on separate contracts.
Nashville has restricted short-term rentals like Airbnb since 2015, and in 2022, the city stopped issuing permits for non-owner-occupied STRs in residential areas. This legislation has slowed (but not stopped) the growth of STRs, and some issues remain — like some owners operating STRs without the correct permits.
An initial run-in with Metro Codes made Faulkner stop renting his rooms on a short-term basis; he said his landlord is supportive of the current arrangement.
“He’s 100 percent for it because he’s pro-people,” says Faulkner. “He’s been in Nashville for 30 or 40 years; he’s seen what’s happening.”
Cheap, unconventional apartments have often been a way for the city’s artists and performers to find their footing, and housing is a priority for city officials amid a serious shortage in affordable units. But while arrangements like Faulkner’s could offer an affordable alternative to some renters, Metro Codes says affordable housing issues won’t be solved by people operating rentals that are against the rules.
“We are all for affordable housing, as long as we can ensure that it is safe, affordable housing through adherence to the Code,” says McBroom. He also points to a significant contribution to Nashville’s Barnes Affordable Housing Trust Fund by the Metro Codes Department every year — this money comes from an earmarked portion of funds taken in from STRs.
Other individuals have offered more structured affordable housing solutions too, though these take permits and organizational power. Nashville’s first publicly funded cooperative housing development opened last year, and individuals like activist Karl Meyer have privately been offering affordable rent to Nashvillians in need for decades.
Faulkner tells the Scene that he’s looked into applying for a boarding house permit, but the city told him he’d also have to install a sprinkler system. “It’s not like I own the property,” he says. “There’s no benefit for me to … spend $3,000 or $4,000 for a sprinkler system.”
In a follow-up email to the Scene, Metro Codes zoning administrator Joel Hargis explains that Faulkner’s house could also become compliant if everyone residing at the house went on a single lease to rent the property together on a long-term basis — at least 30 nights.
But for now, the four-bedroom artist house in Berry Hill is still in full swing, with music coming from every room. Faulkner hopes his housemates won’t have to look elsewhere, but he doesn’t want to run a boarding house either. “My plan is to hopefully raise enough awareness that this will come to a senator’s attention, and that he will go in for a show of cause and stop any of this ordinance stuff happening until it can be debated,” he says.
But barring that sort of intervention, Faulkner might just try to rent the extra rooms as offices. And if that doesn’t work? At that point, he says he might just leave Nashville altogether.
