Threshold:
An entrance or doorway. A place or point of beginning.

Webster’s Dictionary

The need:

Although Nashville Area Habitat has made a significant and sustainable impact as a model community developer, the need for affordable housing in Middle Tennessee is greater than ever. The area’s low-income population has grown, as have the cost of homes, land and rental units.

The agency faces an ongoing challenge with the rising costs to secure and develop land in Davidson County. Long before the first house foundation is poured, Nashville Area Habitat must raise the funds to purchase and develop a large piece of land. For our current Davidson County neighborhood, Timberwood, to be ready for construction in March 2008, we began raising funds for land acquisition in 2005.

That’s why we need your help.

The expenses associated with land development in our Nashville communities have increased 41 percent since 2002. Land development costs include laying sewer lines, roads, drainage, power lines, etc.

Land and development prices have historically risen by at least $4,000 per lot per year and are expected to increase at least that much for the next several years.

To make matters worse, government funding for any housing initiative continues to decrease at an alarming rate.

If Nashville Area Habitat’s current rate of funding remains constant, the number of lots that Nashville Area Habitat will be able to purchase and develop for construction will decline every year beginning in 2008.

With your help, we can continue to build thriving communities for hard-working, low-income families, and we can open our HomeWORKS financial literacy and life skills classes to the public. That way, all low-income families will have access to learn the skills required to transition from renters to homeowners and from tax-users to taxpayers.

Please make homeownership a possibility for all families in Nashville by Crossing the Threshold with us.

Crossing the Threshold: Nashville Area Habitat’s First-ever Capital Campaign

Purpose: to purchase and develop land at today’s prices to endow our future and increase service to low-income families.

Campaign funds will be used to:

• Underwrite the purchase and development of land, which will support the construction of up to 180 homes from 2008 to 2011 at a cost of $5,910,000.
• Create a $1,850,000 Land Acquisition Fund to purchase land now for future communities to offset the negative impact that rapid inflation of land and development costs have on Nashville Area Habitat’s ability to sustain and increase its build capacity and enable the agency to purchase land on which to build after 2011.
• Increase the size and scope of educational classes offered through HomeWORKS at the cost of $567,000.

The result:

With community investment, Nashville Area Habitat can meet its aggressive goals and increase construction capacity by five homes per year into 2014. This will result in the construction of an additional 240 homes between 2008 and 2014, rather than a decline. These additional homes will generate $500,000 in property taxes per year for Davidson County and will enable us to double our capacity to serve low-income families in our community. This will result in more than 1,739 family members being able to move out of poverty for good.