STRESSES

sign is very important,” Polis said in a Jan. 17 news conference, following his address.

So-called “inclusionary” housing policies typically ask property developers to set aside a percentage of units in new developments for a ordable housing, although developers are given di erent options to ful ll those requirements, e Colorado Sun has reported.

e landscape of local governments’ power to a ect housing a ordability in Colorado saw a big change recently. In 2021, Polis signed state House Bill 211117, allowing cities to impose a ordable housing requirements on new or redeveloped projects, so long as developers or property owners have alternatives.

For example, they could trade those for a ordable units built elsewhere, pay a fee into an affordable housing fund, or any number of other options, the Sun reported.

It’s unclear whether Polis would support anything further than the existing allowance for cities to use inclusionary zoning.

As of late January, the governor was focused on gathering input to work with state lawmakers and develop a proposal on landuse policy. As of press deadline, no bill had been introduced.

‘Can’t expect to lose money’

Polis noted the wide gap that has opened between housing prices and people’s income over the last several decades, putting homeownership out of reach for many families.

More government spending on housing is part of the solution to a ordability, experts told CCM, including Yonah Freemark, senior research associate at the nonpro t Urban Institute, based in Washington, D.C.

“Assuming that we can rely entirely on the private market to address the a ordable housing need is, I think, unrealistic and unlikely to address the needs of the people who have the lowest incomes,” Freemark said.

Ron roupe, associate professor of real estate at the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver, said “it’s inevitable” that government must provide the needed funding to bolster the supply side of the housing market.

“We do things (on) the supply side, but it’s not enough,” roupe said. “And you can’t expect a developer to build something and lose money.”

Spending from higher levels of government could bene t in particular the suburbs, which are struggling with housing a ordability but have less political appetite to tackle the problem themselves, Freemark said.

“Ultimately, the most exclusionary places, which are often suburbs, have no incentive to invest in a ordable housing” because “they don’t see a ordable housing as (needed) by their residents,” Freemark said. at said, creating housing a ordability for key workers like teachers, police and re ghters is an important part of the puzzle for communities, roupe said.

“You lose your teachers, and then you lose the quality of your schools, and it hurts the area. Same with police and re,” roupe said.

In the larger business community, housing plays a crucial role too, Polis said.

“Coloradans have to be able to a ord to live in our communities where they can earn a good living, and companies need to be able to nd the workers they need to thrive,” he said in the speech.

‘We are not California’ e governor’s one-liner when speaking about housing — “We are not California. We are Colorado” — raises the question of where the state could be headed if it doesn’t change course.

Net migration, the di erence between the number of people coming into and the number of people leaving an area, has long been positive in Colorado. In 2015, net migration was about 69,000 people, according to the State Demography O ce.

Although the number reached a recent pre-pandemic low in 2019 with about 34,000, newcomers are still owing in.

“ ere are (home) buyers moving in from out of state, and many of them come from higher-priced areas, so they don’t have sticker shocks,” roupe said, speaking to the sustained high demand and high prices in metro Denver.

Looking to the future, roupe doesn’t think the metro Denver housing market is on a similar trajectory that large metro areas such as New York City and San Francisco have experienced in terms of high housing prices.

“New York is a coastal city and a nancial center — same with (several) California (cities), San Francisco. We’ll never be that. We’re our own animal,” roupe said.

“ e choice between those cities and Denver pricing-wise has been extreme; it’ll tighten up. It’ll never be their prices, but it’ll tighten up,” roupe added.

Freemark noted that geographically, Denver has less of a physical barrier to new construction than in places like San Francisco — and that New York City is largely surrounded by water.

Rogers, the teaching assistant professor in the program for environmental design at CU Boulder, described the metro Denver housing market’s future in terms of uncertainty.

“I think that we are in a place we’ve never been before, so I can’t extrapolate the future from that,” Rogers said. “I feel like we’re in unknown waters.”

Thu 2/09

Colorado Symphony Orchestra @ 7:30pm

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Eagle Pointe Recreation Center, 6060 E. Parkway Dr., Commerce City. 303-2893760

2023 USA Curling Men’s & Women’s National Championships

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Boettcher Hall, 1000 14th Street, Denver

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Family Fun Friday- Try ‘N Escape @ 1am

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Valentine's Day cupcake decorating @ 5pm

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Survivalist Seekers @ 8pm

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Simple Steps To Boost Your Immune System (2/15) @ 6pm

Eagle Pointe Recreation Center, 6060 E. Parkway Dr., Commerce City. 303-2893760

Denver Nuggets vs. Dallas Mavericks @ 7pm / $59-$3970 Ball Arena, 1000 Chopper Circle, Denver

Sweet Trip Outing @ 7pm Fort Lupton Recreation & Parks De‐partment, 203 S Harrison, Fort Lupton. 303-857-4200

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Colorado Avalanche vs. Tampa Bay Lightning @ 7pm / $69-$999

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Family Sports Jam - Colorado Avalanche @ 11:15pm Feb 14th - Feb 15th

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Ball Arena, 1000 Chopper Circle, Denver it’s not the kind of thing that happens for one family only.”

One of Colorado’s largest land trusts, Elevation Community Land Trust, which serves Denver, Boulder, Aurora, Longmont and Fort Collins, has created 700 a ordable homes and served around 2,000 residents in its rst ve years of operating.

Rodney Milton, a board member for the Elevation Community Land Trust and executive director of the Urban Land Institute, said another bene t to having shared land is it helps to prevent displacement and keeps communities intact.

“ e problem with reaping full equity is you can leave and the next person who buys the house could a ord to buy it at a higher price and you lose the a ordability,” Milton said. “( e land trust) locks in a ordability, but it also locks in community dynamics.”

Habitat’s plan to purchase more land in its ve-county service area is evidence that the organization believes in the land trust model for successfully housing more people, La erty said.

“We don’t anticipate land getting any less expensive, even if the market cools,” she said. “We have an urgency and a problem today that we’re trying to meet, as well as a long-term problem that we anticipate, so we’re trying to solve for both today and tomorrow.”

La erty said one of the biggest challenges to expanding programs to serve more lower-income households and add moderate-income households is money. Last year, her organization received a $13.5 million donation from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, an Amazon stakeholder, which allowed the organization to buy more property.

Even still, La erty said that Habitat likely only meets “a fraction of a percentage” of existing demand.

“We have a need in the metro area for tens of thousands of a ordable houses,” La erty said. “ at’s why we need bigger, bolder action.”

Inclusionary zoning

Another tactic some municipalities are taking is to use a relatively new tool in Colorado, inclusionary zoning ordinances. State lawmakers in 2019 approved a law to allow cities and towns to require developments to include a certain number of a ordable housing units or pay fees.

So far, only six communities have implemented inclusionary zoning: Broom eld, Boulder, Longmont, Superior, Denver and, most recently, Littleton.

Littleton’s inclusionary housing ordinance, which went into place in November, requires all new residential developments in the city with ve or more units to make at least 5% of those units a ordable to people at or below 80% area median income for households, which is $62,000 for an individual or $89,000 for a family of four.

If developers do not include a ordable units, the inclusionary housing ordinance will levy hundreds of thousands in fees against them to be paid to the city that can then be used on other a ordable housing-related

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303-659-4148 projects.

With upcoming development in the city, more than 2,500 proposed housing units will now be subject to the ordinance, presenting the potential for at least 125 a ordable units.

Littleton District 3 Councilmember Steve Barr said at the Nov. 1 council meeting that he is “not under any impression that the ordinance is going to solve housing a ordability in Littleton or south metro Denver,” but that it provides a critical tool for addressing the crisis.

Developers and others at the meeting voiced concerns about the ordinance making development too costly or di cult and warned it could result in a decrease in the overall available housing. Morgan Cullen, director of government a airs for the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver, told the Littleton council that the ordinance could burden developers to the point where projects wouldn’t be pro table, resulting in no new developments.

“ e additional a ordable units required by this ordinance will not be built if developers and builders decide that Littleton is not a suitable place to invest in the future,” Cullen said.

However, Broom eld Housing Programs Manager Sharon Tessier said in an email that its inclusionary housing ordinance has resulted in 580 a ordable rental units and 43 affordable for-sale homes in two years.

She said when the ordinance was initially in place, a majority of developers chose to pay the fee instead of building a ordable units.

“It allowed us to provide seed money to our new independent