From Section 8 to CEO: Lessons in Resilience

I grew up in Section 8 public housing in Kansas City, Missouri. My mother raised six children by herself, on welfare, without a father in the home. We bounced between public housing projects, including Holy Temple Homes and Friendship Village Apartments. That was my world.

As a child in the Kansas City desegregation program, I was bused across town to attend predominantly white schools, including Korte Elementary and Nowlin Middle School. I learned early what it meant to navigate worlds that were not designed for me. I learned how to read a room before I could read a balance sheet.

There was no single moment that changed everything. It was a series of decisions, each one building on the last. The first was joining the United States Air Force. I served during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. At 20 years old, I was appointed Dorm Chief of Honor Flight 048, responsible for leading and mentoring over 50 airmen. The military gave me structure, discipline, and a belief that where you start out in life has nothing to do with where you end up.

While on active duty, I earned my Bachelor of Science in Economics from Wesley College. When I received my honorable discharge, I carried forward the values of duty, honor, and community. Those values have defined every decision I have made since.

After the Air Force, I came home to Kansas City. I had matured, and I understood the impact I could have on other people. But my first priority was my family.

At 25 years old, I converted my mom's small house into a classroom. I bought used textbooks from the local thrift store, tutored my family, and helped my three older brothers enroll in college for the first time. My mother was not left out. At 55 years old, with my help, she studied for and received her GED.

When she passed away on March 15, 2003, she was a junior in college. The University of Missouri at Kansas City posthumously awarded her a Bachelor's degree. I accepted the degree on her behalf at commencement. That moment is the reason I do this work.

I went on to earn eight degrees. Not for the titles. Each degree was strategically acquired to better serve communities in need. A Master of Public Health from Brown University. A Doctor of Education from Saint Louis University. A Juris Doctor from UMKC School of Law. A Master of Urban Planning from USC. An MBA in Finance, and master's degrees in Economics and Political Science from UMKC. Every credential was a tool, and every tool was built for a purpose.

People sometimes ask why eight degrees. The answer is simple: the problems I am trying to solve do not fit inside a single discipline. Affordable housing intersects with public health, finance, law, urban planning, education, and policy. You cannot build communities if you only understand one piece of the puzzle.

I was elected to the Kansas City City Council representing the Third District at Large. As Chairman of the Planning, Zoning, and Economic Development Committee from 2003 to 2007, I presided over the largest economic development boom in the city's history, directly impacting over $10 billion in development. I also served as Vice Chairman of the Budget and Audit Committee, with jurisdiction over the city's nearly $1 billion budget.

Later, I was nominated by Governor Jay Nixon and confirmed by the Missouri Senate on a bipartisan basis to serve as Vice Chairman of the Missouri Housing Development Commission. MHDC administers the Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit, the Missouri LIHTC, and the Affordable Housing Assistance Tax Credit. That experience gave me the knowledge of how affordable housing really works in Missouri, from application to allocation.

In 1996, at 26 years old, I was nominated by Governor Mel Carnahan and confirmed by the Missouri Senate to the University of Missouri Board of Curators, becoming the first African American to hold the position in the university system's history. I served as the voice for over 55,000 college students throughout the state.

I became the first African American principal at a top ten Missouri commercial real estate firm. I was asked to chair the Salvation Army's Annual Christmas Campaign in Kansas City in 2019, only the second African American to chair the event in the Salvation Army's long history with the city.

None of these firsts were the goal. The goal was always the work itself, and the communities that the work was meant to serve.

Where you live shapes who you become. I know this because I lived it. If your home life is unstable, everything in your life is going to be unstable. That is not an opinion. That is what my Master of Public Health studies at Brown confirmed, and what my years of board service at Samuel Rogers Community Health Center reinforced.

Today, The Nash Group is building 254 or more affordable housing units across Kansas City and St. Louis, with over $100 million in total development costs. Every unit serves families at 30 to 60 percent of Area Median Income. Every project connects housing to health, because affordable housing is an essential social determinant of health.

The Ville Wellness Campus in North St. Louis is a $75 million project integrating 120 affordable housing units with a 45,000 square foot health center, developed in partnership with CareSTL Health, Vecino Group, the City of St. Louis, the Missouri Foundation for Health, and Washington University. The Mabion, a $19.3 million development honoring Ray Mabion Sr. and Jr., is bringing 57 homes to the heart of Kansas City. Promise Place will deliver 85 units of dignified housing for Kansas City families.

People ask me what the lesson is. I tell them the same thing I tell my students at UMKC, where I serve as a professor in the Executive MBA Program and Director of the Lewis White Real Estate Center: where you start out in life has nothing to do with where you end up.

Section 8 was not a ceiling. It was the foundation. Every challenge I faced as a child gave me something that no degree could teach: the ability to see the people behind the numbers, to understand that a housing unit is not just a building, it is somebody's chance to start over.

That is what drives The Nash Group. That is what drives me. And that is the story I will keep telling until every family in every zip code has the foundation to thrive.

Dr. Troy Nash is CEO and Co-Founder of The Nash Group, LLC, CEO and Co-Founder of AGI Affinity, LLC, and Co-Founder of The Nash Group Community Foundation. He serves as a Professor in the Executive MBA Program and Director of the Lewis White Real Estate Center at the UMKC Henry W. Bloch School of Management.