FRANKLIN — With slow but steady progress, the long-discussed goal of building more affordable homes in the city is becoming a reality.
Last week, Habitat for Humanity of Williamson County closed on 1.6 acres in the downtown neighborhood known as Beasley Town with plans to build 13 houses.
Meanwhile, the nonprofit Hard Bargain/Mount Hope Redevelopment this year raised more than $179,000, completed construction of its second home, put in a community garden and restored two buildings.
City leaders have organized a committee that meets monthly to discuss how to encourage the development of more affordable housing.
"We'll look at creating other ordinances to provide incentives to property owners and developers to include different housing options in new developments," said Vernon Gerth, assistant city administrator of community and economic development.
The average house price in Franklin is about $348,000.
Habitat gets new landHabitat for Humanity's new tract comes from the heirs of the man who developed the community in the late 1800s — William Beasley.
Carol Martin, Beasley's granddaughter, said her family has a history of helping neighbors. Beasley built 24 shotgun houses for workers at his sawmill. Martin's father, T.O. "Bunt" Beasley, kept most of the land and rented homes to working-class families.
"My father was a very kind person, in my opinion," Martin said.
"He was always there for whoever was a tenant on the land. He would take them fruit baskets for Christmas, charge them a reasonable rent and if they were ill he wouldn't charge them until they were healthy enough to work."
Martin said she'd been approached by developers offering a lot of money for the land, but didn't see those offers as "beneficial to the community."
Habitat's executive director, John Besser, said the organization would construct up to six homes in Beasley Town next year, and up to seven in 2010.
The homes will be offered to qualified families operating on low to moderate incomes.
It's the second Habitat subdivision in Franklin. The first, Ronald Crutcher Estates, was finished about two years ago and includes 26 houses near Downs Boulevard and Good Neighbor Road. Habitat for Humanity has built 85 homes in Williamson County.
Besser, who wouldn't disclose how much Habitat paid for the Beasley property, said the land was offered at an affordable price.
Recently remodeled
and reconstructed homes near Beasley Town have sold for as much as $650,000.
"To be able to provide affordable housing for our workers in a downtown area where the property is very expensive is a unique combination of factors coming together to meet a need," Besser said.
"Affordable housing to me is something that really takes a life of its own in terms of providing
diversity and different cultures. All those make a community a community. If we have everybody on the same level we don't grow."
Working nearby, the Hard Bargain/Mount Hope Redevelopment group shares that sentiment.
The organization was started in 2005 with a goal of restoring and redeveloping the two neighborhoods, and it has made significant strides in 2008.
Executive director Brant Bousquet said the
nonprofit has plans to build up to 15 houses on three lots. He said the plans could be submitted to Franklin's Planning Commission in February and construction of three homes could begin next summer.
Bousquet said the group's goal is to facilitate neighborhood renewal, not gentrification.
Priority is given to people already living in Hard Bargain or people who grew up there.
"We're not a bunch of do-gooders coming in to tell the neighborhood what to do," he said.
"We hold regular community meetings with
residents. It's not our direction — it's their direction. We ask what they want to do with the neighborhood."
The biggest challenges the nonprofit homebuilders face is finding money and land. The city of Franklin hopes to help by waiving some building fees and providing offsets to water and sewer connections.
Creating more optionsBut those who want to see lower-priced homes in Franklin insist it's going to take more than just non-profit groups.
Stephen Murray, executive director of Community Housing Partnership of Williamson County, said rising property values here have precluded moderate and low-income families from moving in or staying put.
Murray said the best neighborhoods in the best towns have a mix of housing.
"It's going to take the private sector," Murray said.
"Developers have to come along with some things from the city to produce any large numbers of affordable houses."
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