(Un)Affordable Housing
Colorado politicians enable the creation of unaffordable housing, then claim that more housing is needed.
Denver Regional Council of Governments says that 500,000 more housing are needed by 2050. Yet, the eviction filings in Denver have already surpassed 2023 filings. Something does not add up. If there are already people living in unaffordable housing units, why do we need more?
While claiming that they care about affordability, Colorado politicians have enabled the building of more high-priced (or is it, ridiculously over-priced), corporately owned, multi-family units than ever. Before anyone yaps about “market forces” – the same politicians have also done nothing about the potential rent collusion. They chose NOT to implement zoning which would’ve dictated more of the “middle housing” to be built. And, the results are in:
“Housing is now unaffordable for a record half of all U.S. renters, study finds.”
“Half of renters live somewhere they can't afford.”
The policies of those pontificating about affordable housing the most are, in part, why so many are forced to rent. Not every person has to own a house, but it would be nice to be able to buy a condo (built to higher standards, including sound-proofing) in order to start building some equity. And, it would be nice, if that building was within walking distance of functional public transit – another fiasco of Colorado “leaders’” making.
Instead of driving economic development, public transit and educational opportunities, stoking localized economic engines, which then could’ve provided some money to subsidize some affordable housing units for those making less, but still vital to the community (think teachers, mechanics, janitors, etc.), any number of Colorado politicians enabled a horribly lopsided development equation, putting corporate profits first.
It is not just the over-priced rentals. A number of city governments around Colorado are also furthering the Metro District abuse. As the result, people all around Colorado end up paying thousands of dollars per year on top of their mortgage and taxes, with that money not going toward the public services.
Colorado has been a joke for decades, when it comes to public transit.
Yeah, yeah, it’s all TABOR’s fault. It has never occurred to the state or the municipal governments that if they consider cutting 40-100% of the “work from home” staff (so, NOT the teachers, firefighters and paramedics, park rangers, the police or the road crews, but the administrative bloat) and start spending those funds on infrastructure and parks, maybe the voters will be a lot more generous the next time TABOR-related issues show up on the ballot.
Sadly, even when it comes to the parks, at least, in the cities such as Lakewood, the head of the parks department gets paid a LOT (another “work from home” position), with very little to show for it in the park maintenance.
To add an insult to that injury, Lakewood City Council has been pushing back, hard, against the citizens’ request for the developers to pay a market rate for park land dedication. So much for listening to and representing their constituents.
I recall having a conversation with the then-Mayor of Lakewood, Adam Paul, in which he quipped how by 2025 our traffic issues will be solved with the self-driving cars. Well, 2025 is right around the corner and the self-driving cars have done less than jack shit to alleviate our traffic issues (most of them created by the failures of those “work from home” planning types).
You know what a self-driving car called that stays on a track, while dutifully taking you from one station to the next? A train. And we could’ve had a way more comprehensive network built, even if just a fraction of the money cities such as Lakewood piss away on annual basis was spent on building it out for the last couple of decades.
Yet, when I was standing in front of the Lakewood city council talking to how there should be a line running from Golden all the way to the DTC, along 470, the same mayor, pretty much laughed to my face.
The train network in Colorado (well, mostly around Denver) is a cruel joke. It does not provide the sufficient coverage, does not run on time, is riddled with crime and, well, generally, sucks. While the RTD has a budget close to a billion dollar per year.
To double (or is it quadruple at this point) down on stupid, Colorado has failed to properly lay out the rights-of-way and the general network to be built out. Now, the “planners” have created a nightmare scenario where a number of areas with high density do not have a viable public transit coverage or a way to build line when one is needed. So, will the future metro lines go underground?
Imagine Denver taking one a project of that sort – we’ll leave the ensuing cluster to your imagination. How is that DIA remodel going? Still learning how to pour structural concrete?
Another aspect of the infrastructure failure is the sewer and water. While the Colorado municipalities have been subsidizing developer profits for years (if not decades), the strain on the sewer and water infrastructure has gone up. A lot. And, instead of charging those who hook in to the system a market-rate (since so many of the developer shills love to yap about free markets and property rights), it is going to be the rate-payers who are now on the hook – the situation in Broomfield is just the latest example of this.
Of course, instead of balancing the development equation with some fairness toward the citizens, the local governing bodies keep encouraging more unbridled and poorly planned (if one can call it planning at all) development, while the rest of us have to pay higher rents, higher metro district fees, higher insurance payments, sit in traffic (so, pay with our time and health) and keep breathing more and more polluted air. Affordable, indeed.
