Housing and homelessness take center stage during Denver’s first mayoral debate

By Robert Davis

Photo: Nathan Dumlao/Unsplash

As the race to become Denver’s next mayor heats up, housing and homelessness have become two topics that candidates cannot avoid talking about.

Denver’s next mayor will have to address the lack of affordable housing for many workers in the city as well as rising rates of homelessness. They will also have to reverse the trend of declining government employment at a time when some candidates want to increase enforcement of the city’s urban camping ban.

The election will be held on April 4, and Denverites will begin receiving ballots on March 13.

Sixteen of the 17 candidates vying to become Denver’s next mayor showed up to the first public debate of the campaign season at Regis University on February 9. While their views varied widely on topics like the environment and economic policy, they all seemed to agree that housing and homelessness are the two most important issues that the city’s next leader must address.

Candidates like outgoing at-large city councilwoman Debbie Ortega and state Rep. Leslie Herod, a Democrat who represents parts of downtown Denver including City Park and the botanic gardens, said they would create more affordable housing by passing ordinances that allow for a more diverse housing inventory.

Ortega said one option would be to build manufactured housing on city-owned land. Another option would be to address the backlog of permits within Community Planning and Development that is delaying affordable projects from being built, she added.

“I think this is a way for us to look at the way we do things differently and help bring more affordable housing to the market,” Ortega said.

The median price of a home in Denver grew about 37% from $474,000 when the pandemic began in March 2020, to more than $650,000 at its peak in April 2022, according to data from Redfin. While the real estate market has cooled considerably since then, the rental market has remained hot. Data from Point2Homes shows that Denver’s average rent for a two-bedroom apartment has increased by 25% since March 2020.

To address these issues, candidates like Ean Thomas Tafoya and Terrance Roberts said Denver needs to provide different financial pathways for people to become homeowners. One solution Tafoya offered was to invest in more financial literacy programs. Roberts said the city could also invest in land banking to cut down on the acquisition costs that go into building new homes.

The candidates also supported a range of options to reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness. Some of their ideas included establishing rent control policies, increasing eviction protections for renters, and building more permanently affordable housing units where residents would never pay more than 20% of their income on rent.

However, the candidates were sharply divided over whether to continue enforcing the city’s camping ban, which has been a point of contention between City Hall and the city’s homeless advocacy community since the law was passed in 2012. There have been multiple lawsuits filed to try and stop the city from enforcing the camping ban and none have been successful.

Kelly Brough, who served as president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce for over a decade, said she would stop “endlessly sweeping people from neighborhood to neighborhood” and would instead create more sanctioned campsites to help people transition into housing.

“We need to get ahead of this issue,” Brough said.

However, other candidates like Chris Hansen—a Democrat in the Colorado Senate who represents wealthy Denver neighborhoods like Congress Park, Hilltop, and Washington Park—said he would continue enforcing the city’s camping ban if elected.

“This is a moment to re-evaluate and use evidence-based programming and budgeting like I’ve done at the state level, and we absolutely have to enforce Denver’s camping ban to make progress,” Hansen said.