“Naturally Occurring” Affordable Housing is Dead in Colorado
A new statehouse report underscores what is already obvious to millions of Coloradans, former Coloradans and would-be Coloradans: it’s really expensive to live here, and it’s getting worse.
In the last decade alone, the state has lost 300,000 “naturally occurring” housing units that people making $45,000 or less can afford without spending more than 30% of their income on housing. That is well over 10% of the entire state’s housing stock, which Census data show is somewhere north of 2.5 million overall units.
This year’s state budget, projected at $40 billion, will feature at least $400 million more for housing than in previous years, due to federal legislation passed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In many parts of the state, the concept of affordable housing produced organically by the market, as opposed to through government intervention, is essentially dead, said state Rep. Dylan Roberts, an Avon Democrat who chaired the task force on housing. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s research on self-sufficiency standards by state and county indicates there is almost nowhere in Colorado where an adult with one child can live on $40,000 without spending in the red or cutting back on essentials such as food and health care.
CLICK HERE to read the entire Denver Post article
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Gary Fleisher is Editor in Chief of Modular Home Source and Offsite Builder. Email at [email protected]
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