Polis Signs Affordable Housing and Rent Control Bill
By Robert Davis
Governor Jared Polis signed a bill on May 28 that gives local governments more authority to develop affordable housing and control rent prices.
House Bill 21-1117 weaves around state statutes to allow local governments to control rental prices through land-use policy rather than through legislative action. It also allows local authorities to promote the construction of affordable housing through similar mechanisms. It was sponsored by a coalition of Denver Democrats including Sens. Julie Gonzales and Robert Rodriguez and Reps. Susan Lontine and Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez.
“I think, as Coloradans, we all know housing costs are too high. To rent or purchase – it’s getting really bad,” Polis said at the signing event.
Colorado’s housing crisis – and Denver’s more specifically – stretches back well before the marijuana boom in 2014. Through the 1960s and 70s, downtown Denver saw its share of the total employment of the metro area drop from 62% to nearly 50%. Construction and retail trade jobs were leaving the downtown district for more suburban parts of the city.
To revitalize the downtown area, Denver underwent a period of urban renewal that was highlighted by the Urban Skyline Renewal Project in 1965. A total of 27 blocks of historic buildings, low-income housing, and old buildings were leveled and then redeveloped into some of the skyscrapers dotting the Auraria skyline today.
As the city slowly urbanized, many of its impoverished made their way to the suburbs in search of work. The increased population caused increased demand for housing, thus causing home prices to slowly rise.
This upward pressure on home prices caused some municipalities to consider promoting affordable housing through ordinances. Telluride was once such a city, but the ordinance was swiftly challenged by a developer who argued it violates the state statutes that prohibit rent control measures. Colorado’s Supreme Court agreed with that argument in 2000 in Town of Telluride v. Thirty-Four Venture – known as the Telluride decision.
Following the Great Recession in 2007 and Mayor Michael Hancock’s assumption of office in 2011, Denver focused its revitalization efforts around its downtown core. Hancock’s opening salvo was the urban camping ban, and he has since followed the move with successive policies aimed at attracting businesses and market-rate housing to the city center. The result has been disastrous for many low-income communities in Denver. Since taking office, Denver’s housing affordability index – which measures how affordable homes are compared to the median income and cost of living – has dropped precipitously, according to the Colorado Association of Realtors.
Denver’s affordability index currently stands at 78, meaning the median income is only 78% of what is needed to afford housing. For comparison, it stood at nearly 150 for single-family housing and over 220 for townhomes in 2011. Last year the index dropped 10%, its largest fall in the last four years.
At the same time, homelessness has increased in the capital city. Since 2016, an additional 540 people are experiencing homelessness in Denver County, according to the latest Point in Time Count data. The most significant increase has been among people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Denver has gained nearly 500 unsheltered homeless over the same timeframe as well.
“I don’t think there is any one bill that can turn it around. But, I am thrilled that the legislature will be working on an interim process to use some of the federal recovery money to address these issues,” Polis said.
The Colorado Municipal League (CML), a nonprofit organization that represents the interests of 270 cities across the state, applauded Polis for signing the bill.
“This act corrects an unfortunate decision by the Colorado Supreme Court in 2000 and restores local control over land use. The crushing costs of rental housing, when any is even available, require every tool municipalities can reasonably use,” said CML Legislative Advocacy Manager Meghan Dollar.
Gonzales-Gutierrez said the bill represents how state and local governments can work together to address housing issues.
“This bill gives our local governments another tool in their toolbox to be able to make this happen,” she said.