Wheat Ridge stays on housing trend

BY JO DAVIS JDAVIS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Wheat Ridge has been attempting to tackle its housing problem through an A ordable Housing Strategy.

“What we’re seeing on a ordability is grassroots,” said Doug Ressler, an analyst at Rent Café. “I mean, you don’t have this one all-encompassing federal program that says, ‘ ou shalt do this if this doesn’t exist.’ So we see a lot coming from the grassroots, from the municipalities, boroughs, towns, counties, things like that.”

Ressler added that the demand for a ordable housing is coming from the stagnancy in wages against the rise in housing costs. It’s causing a shift in the demand for a ordable rental housing that according to Ressler, forces cities like Wheat Ridge to step in.

“For the most part, these people vote, right? So these realities want to be able to not only meet demand, but they want to make sure that the people that live in their areas are also satis ed,” he said.

Rent Café found that over 80% of U.S. residents have chosen to live in an urban setting as of 2023.

“And with that number set to rise to nearly 90% by 2050, house prices are rising, with signi cant consequences to housing a ordability,” according to the statistics.

“So that’s why many politicians and many businesses are starting to collaborate at the grassroots level, to be able to make things more a ordable,” Ressler explained.

And that’s exactly what the city of Wheat Ridge is doing. According to Je Hirt Wheat Ridge’s Senior Neighborhood Planner, the city saw a ordability as a challenge that o cials accepted. ey started by applying for an a ordable Housing Strategy grant which became the rst step in a city policy change. at change would become the ve-year plan that the city council approved in January of this year.

Hirt explained that the process included an assessment that found, that about 36% of all Wheat Ridge households meet the federal de nition of “cost-burdened,” meaning that these households spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs. at number is particularly high for renters, where over 50% of renter households are cost-burdened, according to the assessment. is is in line with Rent Café’s ndings that most renters are looking for a ordability. Ressler explained that a ordability and the realities of homeownership are factors. His