Nashville’s New Approach To Public Housing Takes Shape In East Nashville

Nashville’s public housing agency broke ground Friday on its first new apartment building in nearly two decades.

The 68-unit Cayce Place, in East Nashville, will be a four-story building that looks state-of-the-art next to its squatty brick neighbors built in the 1950s.

The project will be the first step toward demolishing and rebuilding the entire Cayce neighborhood — the city’s largest subsidized housing complex.

It’s long overdue, said 36-year-old resident Lakisha Moore, who grew up in the complex and returned to live there four years ago.

“These are time to come down. This community being so bad over here — it’s time to change  … keep all the crime down. You know where I’m coming from?“

The Metropolitan Housing and Development Agency spent three years creating a $600 million Cayce master plan. It outlines a mixed-income community — housing some of Nashville’s poorest residents alongside homes to be available at the market rate. And not just homes, but also the retail spaces, grocery store and park space the neighborhood has lacked for decades.

Unlike some public housing overhauls, Cayce will end up with the same number of units. MDHA says it will be built in phases so that no one is forced to relocate.

“We could just say, ‘OK, y’all get out, here’s a voucher, go find somewhere to live’ — not good,” said MDHA Board Chairman Ralph Mosley. “We need to have as little disruption in their life as we can possibly have.”

There has been tension with residents. Vernell McHenry, a resident in the Cayce United advocacy group, said trying to guide the plan was like a “roller coaster.”

“A good roller coaster,“ she said. “We’ve had our ups and our downs but we’ve went forward and forward. And I think this is going to be good for my neighbors; good for them to get a new outlook on life.”

All told, more than 2,000 units will be redeveloped, although funding is secured for only a fraction of the $600 million plan.