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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – The cost of living keeps rising here in Tennessee, and some families don’t know what to do. North Lights Apartments, a new place for low-income tenants, is raising rents in August. Now some tenants are wondering what to do.
“I am thinking of a restricted income. That’s why I’m here, so my rent can’t jump up and down and flip all over the place,” Karen Amos said.
In March, she moved into the North Lights Apartments shortly after the apartment complex opened. “I went through stages to try to get here. To try to pay less rent because where I lived it was expensive and it was older apartments, so I was like, ‘Okay, let me try.’
Amos was thrilled to move into a brand new apartment and save some money. Now she and her neighbors have to adapt.
“Not even in five months, you tell me that my rent will increase. Well, have you checked my money? Because I don’t know where it will come from,” Amos said.
On June 1, she received 60 days’ notice that her rent would increase by more than $100 on August 1. His rent goes from $887 to $1,000. “Some people might say it’s not much, but you don’t know my fight.”
“My niece lives here. She paid 1,200; now it goes up to $1,400,” Amos explained.
Since the apartments are aimed at low-income families, the rent is based on the median gross income area (MIGA). Amo and his neighbors’ lease stipulates that if MIGA increases at any time, the [apartment complex] landlord can raise the rent.
“Even though it may say in my lease that you can ride, think about the people you hurt. Some people are probably freaking out. Not knowing what they will do because they have an income,” Amos said.
A rental office worker told News4 that tenants could decline the new rental prices and move out before August. However, Amos would like to see Elmington, the company that owns the North Lights Apartment, refrain from raising the rent so that low-income families have an affordable home.
“That’s why there are so many homeless people in Nashville right now,” Amos said. “There is nowhere to live. Nowhere affordable. Nowhere affordable. These were supposed to be affordable.
As more and more people move to Nashville, there is a chance that MIGA will continue to grow. However, Amos and his neighbors tell News4 they hope that doesn’t mean affordable housing will get more expensive.
News4 has reached out to Elmington so they can weigh in on the situation; they have yet to send us a statement explaining why they decided to raise the rent when MIGA went up and whether they plan to raise the rent again this year.
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