NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — As the affordable housing crisis continues in Nashville, a new ordinance could help some people save money.
It would change the number of unrelated people who can live in the same house together. Metro codes only allow 3 people who aren't family members to live in the same home regardless of the size of the home. Now council members are looking to change that.
A new bill would revise the definition of what a family is and allow up to 7 people who are unrelated to live in the same home. This aims to help college students with roommates, or lower-income residents who are more likely to split rent or mortgage payments.
"I think the overriding thing at this point is the importance of people being able to live in houses," councilwoman Burkely Allen said. "I had two sets of children that all started out with five roommates in expensive cities like New York and San Francisco, and right now we don’t have that option in Nashville."
After a fair amount of debate, council members approved the change on the second of three votes, but said they would still like to get more feedback on the issue.
While supporters say this could help people save money on housing as prices continue to climb others expressed concerns about how filling homes with more people would impact noise, traffic and parking in neighborhoods and how this change would be enforced.
"One of the many concerns I would have about this is seven unrelated individuals bringing seven unrelated vehicles and seven unrelated sets of friends and all of these things and all of these things could be taxing on the neighborhood," councilman Russ Pulley said.
