By now, it is no secret Nashville is experiencing a housing stability crisis.
With the 400,000 population surge in the past decade and the cost of living increasing along with it, staying on top of paying rent has become a struggle for many Nashvillians. According to The Eviction Lab, an eviction tracker run by Princeton University, nearly 13,000 evictions were filed in the past year.
It is statistics like these that move Hartley Hall, a community leader with a history of working in the financial services industry, specifically focusing on affordable housing finance, to keep working towards change.
While Hartley and his wife Carolyn began making donations to a variety of funds at the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee in 1996, a liquidity event led them to open the Hall Family Advised Fund in 2007.
“I have a strong sense that all humans need to be generous with their time, talents, and treasure,” says Hartley.
CFMT was the ideal place for the Halls to leverage their treasure.
“If you have any charitable intent at all, the Foundation is an extremely smart, tax efficient and effective way to do this,’ says Hartley. “You can give away money when it maximizes the tax benefits to you, and you can execute where those funds end up over time. There are very few restrictions, and the Community Foundation is a great organization, they know all the nonprofits in the region that are worthy of your support.”
The Hall Family Advised Fund has made grants to several local nonprofits including the Frist Art Museum, Friends of Warner Park, Nations Ministry and Rooftop Nashville as well as capital campaigns to support Montgomery Bell Academy, Ensworth School and Westminster Presbyterian Church.
Both Hartley and Carolyn were especially drawn to the fact that CFMT allows funds to be allocated to causes outside of Middle Tennessee which has allowed them to support their respective alma maters, Davidson College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as a scholarship fund established in 1983 in Carolyn’s mother’s memory at The Westminster Schools in Atlanta.
While The Foundation offered the perfect place for Hartley to leverage his treasure, Rooftop Nashville, a nonprofit that aims to avert homelessness before it occurs by providing one time rent or mortgage assistance payments to otherwise self-sustaining tenets, has offered the opportunity for Hartley to utilize his time and talents while volunteering as a board member.
“When we talk about addressing homelessness, we need to think about preventing it, which is a whole lot cheaper than trying to fix it after it occurs,” says Hartley.
According to Bankrate, a consumer financial services company based in New York City, 56% of Americans don’t have $1,000 in savings for emergencies, and unexpected costs such as medical bills, family crises or auto expenses can wreck people’s finances and their ability to pay rent, leading to eviction.
“Eviction is a traumatic event for a family or person, and once it’s on your record, it can be difficult to find housing again going forward,” says Hartley.
The Difference of a Philanthropic Gift
After years of generosity as a fundholder and donor, Hartley experienced the difference a philanthropic gift can make from the perspective of a nonprofit when an anonymous CFMT fundholder donated $500,000 to Rooftop Nashville between 2015-2019.
“We [Rooftop Nashville] are still benefiting dramatically from what we did with those funds,” says Hartley.
The donor wanted to help them build their infrastructure, so they utilized the funds to hire and train professionals and social workers, allowing them to review grants more strategically, leveraging funds and taking the organization to new heights.
In 2019, 2020 and 2021, 91% of tenants who received assistance from Rooftop Nashville remained housed in the same residency a year later, or if they had moved, it was of their own volition.
Rooftop Nashville looks to expand its ability to reach those in vulnerable positions who are at risk of homelessness, by continuing to build relationships with wrap-around nonprofits such as Legal Aid Society’s Eviction Right to Counsel, potentially creating a granting program that allows tenants of the financial backing to pursue upward mobility in their careers, or even “Housing-to-Housing” moving project that gives both tenants and landlords peace of mind while making the transition to affordable housing complexes.
With the cost of housing rising rapidly, Rooftop Nashville’s mission of keeping Nashville housed has never been more salient, and thanks in part to the generosity of the anonymous donor, they are poised to battle Nashville’s housing stability crisis.
The time, talent and treasure of Hartley and Carolyn Hall are making an impactful change for good.
