August 13, 2019 (Nashville). It’s official. A movement is afoot to pressure Metro Nashville government to build the affordable housing we need now. 60 people joined the August 3rd Convergence to Launch 31,000 Homes on Saturday – a daylong training and strategy session to fight for a city that can be home to all of us, not just a playground for the rich and connected. 

With your help, the People’s Alliance for Transit, Housing and Employment is confronting the deteriorating housing crisis head-on. Let’s call this what it is: a humanitarian crisisin which over half of all renters are cost-burdened, 1000s are facing eviction, and our communities — and the support systems they bring — are being decimated. We are tired of elected officials giving public funds away to unaccountable developers, but never having money for the majority of us.

The Movement for 31,000 Affordable Homes is bringing together community organizations, neighborhood groups, congregations and YOU to force the conversation on what our communities need now. There is no silver bullet that will reverse years of displacement and destruction of our communities. But we know that housing is a basic human right, and Nashville’s next mayor and Metro Council must make funding for an ambitious plan to build affordable and workforce housing their top priority. 

And Workers’ Dignity is proud to add another voice to the years-long work of Open Table Nashville, Nashville Organized for Action and Hope, A VOICE, and many others on the frontlines of housing justice. 

We invite you to join the PATHE Coalition’s upcoming mobilizations. Will you join us? 

• Tuesday, August 20th, 5pm: The Marie Antoinette Cake Party on the lawn of the Metro Courthouse. At this last Metro Council meeting of this term, we will gather to let our elected officials know we await their return in October. Metro Council members and others are invited to meet Marie Antoinette, eat some cake, and hear why this is Nashville’s “Peasants don’t have bread” moment.
• Saturday, September 7th, 10am – 2pm: We Wanna Stay Get Out the Vote canvassing mobilization and fan out across Nashville neighborhoods to talk with registered voters in communities targeted for gentrification about our fight for affordable housing. Location and details forthcoming.    

If you want to share your skills, time or resources in other ways, email the PATHE Coalition at info@pathenashville.org.