Hal Cato, CEO of Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, believes housing is inherently tied to the region’s prosperity. It is part of the foundation of our region.

“When a nurse or a teacher or a cook can’t afford to live in the city where they need to work, the city starts to slowly hollow itself out,” said Cato.

That understanding is part of what led to the Unified Housing Leadership Council, a cross-sector effort supported by CFMT, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Mayor’s Office. The council brings together leaders from across the region to guide implementation of the Unified Housing Strategy and supports long-term progress on one of Nashville’s most urgent shared challenges.

Nearly half of renters in Davidson County are cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing. For households earning less than $50,000, the pressure is greater. When that much of a paycheck goes toward rent, families have less room to save, and it becomes harder to weather a crisis or build long-term stability.

“When people identify the problem of housing they may initially believe it’s just a social services issue,” said Cato.

“In reality, housing is the infrastructure that makes everything else work.”

Stephanie Coleman is CEO of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and sees the same challenge through the lens of workforce and economic growth.

Across Nashville, leaders are all working on housing. But those efforts have not always been connected by shared priorities, shared data, or even a shared system for action.

“We don’t have a problem finding people who care,” said Cato. “We have a coordination problem.”

That lack of coordination can show up in the spaces between, where people in charge of shaping policy, funding, development, and community priorities are often working toward the same goal but not working from the same table.

“One of the biggest disconnects is that these conversations often happen separately rather than together,” said Coleman. “Policy funding, development, and community priorities all influence one another, but too often they operate in silos.”

At CFMT the work is about helping the housing ecosystem be more effective by convening partners, supporting shared accountability and helping capital reach places where it can make a difference.

“CFMT will never be able to build housing directly,” said Cato, “But we want to make sure the whole ecosystem is working together effectively.”

Meaningful progress requires measurable movement, shared investment and continued coordination. It also requires a shared commitment to seeing housing not as one organization’s responsibility but as shared community priority.