Denver plans to raise more than $150 million over 10 years to address affordable housing.
Denver city officials on Friday unveiled the full version of a proposed five-year housing strategy, but they immediately faced questions about whether the plan sufficiently helps residents at risk of being pushed out by rising costs.
Neighborhoods undergoing rapid redevelopment and exhibiting signs of gentrification would get some help from the plan, Mayor Michael Hancock and his advisers said during a media briefing. Called “Housing an Inclusive Denver,” the 98-page draft plan will be subject to a 45-day public comment period and City Council consideration.
But a group of 21 residents from Globeville and Elyria-Swansea who attended a city forum about a plan framework last week questioned whether the strategy goes far enough to help families and individuals stay in their homes.
“Denver’s growing housing crisis is not only a direct threat to the health and well-being of our families and neighbors, but also jeopardizes the stability of the greater metropolitan region as a whole,” wrote the group, made of up members of Globeville Elyria Swansea Coalition Organizing for Health and Housing Justice, in a joint letter Friday. It was addressed to Hancock, council members and the city’s Housing Advisory Committee.
During Friday’s media briefing, Hancock’s chief housing adviser said the plan would expand on previous city help for tenants and others struggling with rising housing costs as one of many prongs of the strategy. The document is the city’s first stab at a comprehensive plan to begin making use of its newly created 10-year, $150 million affordable housing fund.
Image from "Gentrification Study: Mitigating Involuntary Displacement"
A map produced last year for a city study shows Denver neighborhoods identified as vulnerable to negative effects of gentrification.
“There are two specific programs that are going to provide immediate assistance,” said Erik Soliván, the executive director of Hancock’s housing policy coordination office. “One is a financial eviction and utility assistance program. That will be made available to our communities to ensure that our residents can remain in their homes.
Housing office spokeswoman Julie Smith later said various tenant and homeowner assistance programs are expected to serve at least 10,000 households through 2023.
A new program is expected to help 190 households with temporary rental assistance and 120 with utility payments, she said. A planned expansion next year of a senior and disabled property tax rebate program could help nearly 1,100 more households.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, second from right, discusses the release of the new Housing an Inclusive Denver affordable-housing plan on Sept. 29, 2017. With Hancock are, from left, Housing Advisory Committee chair Kevin Marchman, housing coordination director Erik Soliván and chief financial officer Brendan Hanlon.
The potential initiatives cited by Soliván were outlined in the earlier framework, including the rent buy-down program.
City officials have said that pilot program would include the striking of agreements with property owners, using up to $2 million raised from private and public sources, to secure up to 400 vacant market-rate apartments for rental at lower lease rates to income-qualified tenants.
The broader housing plan also says the city will explore the creation of community land trusts in some neighborhoods where longtime homeowners are at risk of being displaced as property values rise.
That idea, which some of the letter-signers are exploring in their north neighborhoods as the Interstate 70 project nears, involves the purchasing of land beneath homes by a nonprofit organization. It then leases the land back to participating homeowners over the long term, with some restrictions, to help stabilize property values.
The newly released full version of the five-year plan fills in details of the framework but largely hews to that summary document.
The proposed housing strategy, by building on existing programs and proposing new ones, aims to create new housing in economically vulnerable neighborhoods and places with opportunity. Some proposals would preserve existing housing that’s affordably priced but is at risk of rent hikes or purchase by developers.
Officials say they want to help the homeless, renters and homeowners with strategies aimed at a range of income levels.
Through Nov. 13, the city is soliciting feedback on the plan. A revised version then will be submitted to the council for approval.
A Spanish translation of the framework is now available, but a translation of the full plan won’t be available until Oct. 9, the mayor’s office says.