Affordable Housing

In September 2016, a half-mill affordable housing levy was approved by Denver City Council and Mayor Hancock (see the city's website for more information on Denver's dedicated affordable housing fund.) The fund is estimated to raise $150 million over the next 10 years to create or preserve 6,000 affordable homes for low- to moderate-income families. Thanks to all who showed your support for the first-ever dedicated fund for affordable housing in Denver.

There is still more work to be done!

With Denver seeing changes happening in its neighborhoods in months rather than years, All In Denver believes that Mayor Hancock and the City Council must be bold in creating and using new dedicated funding streams to create affordable housing that reaches a wide continuum of households ranging from homeless to very low income to young professionals.

See results of the 2018 Housing Survey!

Affordable Housing: What's Going On?

What All In Denver Is Doing About Affordable Housing Across Communities:

Denver's Affordable Housing Future

Spring 2018: City of Denver announces Affordable Housing Fund Proposal using input from All In Denver. See Denver Post story here; see a slideshow of the city's full proposal here.

Winter 2017: All In Denver sends its updated Proposal to Accelerate and Broaden Funding for Denver's Affordable Housing Plan to City Council. (Read the story from Denverite for more information.)

Winter 2017: All In Denver Presents its affordable housing funding proposal to Denver City Council's SAFEHOUSE Committee in a session on Denver's Five-Year Comprehensive Housing Plan; later that week, the same proposal was presented to the city's Housing Advisory Committee.

Fall 2017: All In Denver Releases its draft of a Proposal to Accelerate and Broaden Denver's Housing Plan.

Fall 2016: All In Denver drafts Guiding Principles on the Denver Ordinance Creating Dedicated Funding Streams for Affordable Housing Programs

More data from All In Denver on the success of bonding measures in other states to help fund affordable housing:

"Affordable Housing Bonds in other cities" -Case study memo comparing Denver's capacity to utilize bond funding to West Coast cities that have successfully done so, like San Francisco, Portland and Oakland.

Housing Opportunities For Denver's Artist Community

Winter 2017: Denver announces a $300,000 Safe Creative Spaces Fund to help renters and landlords bring non-traditional live/work spaces up to code without displacing artists

Summer 2017: A DIY Housing Victory! City Council approves the Safe Occupancy Program

On July 17, 2017, Denver City Council approved CB17-0726, the Safe Occupancy Program for buildings, which created a path to compliance for existing artist spaces and other non-traditional live/work spaces. Designed to ensure safety and avoid displacement, Denver Community Planning and Development (CPD) and the Denver Fire Department (DFD) launched a new, conditional building occupancy program for unpermitted spaces. It was created to ensure life safety, limit displacement, and allow extended deadlines and collaborative solutions to achieve code compliance. Read more about the Safe Occupancy Program via the city's website.

Together with members of Denver's DIY arts community, All In Denver created recommended amendments to the original program; the city of Denver took those recommendations and applied them to the final version of CB17-0726, the Safe Occupancy Program, which passed city council and went into law in July of 2017.

Winter 2016: All In Denver drafts statement supporting DIY (Do-It-Yourself) and alternative housing

2017 Denver Affordable Housing Study

Spring 2017: In collaboration with Enterprise Community Partners, All In Denver co-sponsored a poll of likely Denver voters, testing attitudes toward a variety of affordable housing initiatives. The poll, which carries a margin of error of about 5%, provided several conclusions that are counter to what has been considered “conventional wisdom” about the affordable housing issue and Denver voters, including:

There is very strong support for the City Council’s actions last fall to create a dedicated fund for housing.
Affordable housing and homelessness rate high on the minds of Denver voters, higher than transportation and jobs.
There is very strong support for a variety of common sense protections for renters that Denver could implement immediately.
There is evidence of support for bolder approaches to fund affordable housing, including a citywide bond issue.