Matt Wiltshire has no regrets about running for mayor — he loved the process.
Though he would end up as the third-place finisher, he even says of his 24-hour campaign-a-thon: “That part was actually super fun.”
Local nonprofit community development financial institution Pathway Lending has added an arm, Pathway Affordable Housing Corporation, and hired Wiltshire to lead it. Between the new role and his mayoral run, Wiltshire worked to pass affordable-housing-related legislation. The community development financial institution is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, with a historic focus on bringing capital to underserved communities and entrepreneurs.
A former investment banker who worked on economic and community development for the mayor’s office for eight years and in leadership at the Metro Development Housing Authority for three, he says the role feels like a culmination of those years of experience.
He spoke with the Scene's sister publication the Nashville Post along with Clint Gwin, longtime president and CEO of Pathway Lending, to discuss the new role.
The focus of Pathway Affordable Housing Corporation is to create and preserve affordable housing, with an emphasis on the latter. Pathway will buy existing affordable housing, with the intention of keeping it that way.
“Our primary focus is on preserving existing affordable income-aligned housing that is in the pathway of gentrification, so it may be affordable today but won't be in the future,” Wiltshire says.
Gwin adds, “Trying to increase the volume number of units available for folks to have income-aligned housing was something that our board felt was well within the mission of Pathway Lending, but also something that we could use our capacity as a CDFI to potentially help accelerate the creation and retention of income-aligned housing.”
The former economic development and housing executive under four mayors says he is ready to step up to the next challenge
Wiltshire and Gwin use the the term “income-aligned” to refer to housing costs that are no more than 30 percent of a given tenant’s income. Wiltshire says the new term is more specific.
“I don't think [affordable housing] has a PR issue,” he says. “I think affordable housing is awesome. And I think if you look at any poll or survey out there, it's the number one or number two issue for most people in this city and in this state. It is a deep need that we have.”
Pathway Lending has experience with using low-income housing tax credits, which primarily serve those who make 50 to 60 percent of the area median income (or about $60,000 for a family of four in the Nashville area) Wiltshire points out that many higher-income Nashvillians are cost-burdened, meaning they are paying more than 30 percent of their income for rent. He would like to target those who fall above and below the low-income housing tax credit audience.
That could include mixed-income communities, like the housing Wiltshire helped facilitate during MDHA’s Envision process. It’ll definitely include garnering investments, like the $10.6 million secured from Amazon for MDHA’s Cherry Oak apartments.
“Pathway Affordable Housing Corporation today is structured as a nonprofit, but we don’t have a nonprofit mentality,” he says. “We are looking to make money while doing good.”
Developers looking to make a buck will buy affordable housing in Nashville and flip it. Pathway Lending seeks to be a similar force, except with the goal of holding onto it, and keeping it “income-aligned.”
“Market-rate, value-add developers have stepped in and acquired a lot of housing, invested a few million dollars and then jacked the rents up 40, 50, 60 percent,” Wiltshire says. “They are doing what their investors expect them to do. But we think there's a better way to preserve housing, particularly in thriving neighborhoods, stuff that's in the pathway of gentrification that we can hold on to and keep affordable so that Nashville doesn't lose the charm and what made the city so great in the first place.”
This article originally appeared in our sister publication the Nashville Post.
