After a legislative session that delivered full-day kindergarten, lower costs for early childhood education, new steps toward paid leave and retirement security and stronger consumer protections, there’s a campaign trying to tell you these priorities are somehow alien ambitions for our state — that these community achievements are a far cry from what Coloradans want […]
affordable housing
Posted inGrowth, News
It’s not just Denver: Rural Colorado feeling housing crunch, with more residents spending half their income on a place to live
YUMA — In one of her two jobs, Kerri Horton visits the homes of new and expectant mothers to advise them on healthy practices as they step into parenthood. Along the way, she sometimes catches an inside look at what the lack of affordable housing looks like in rural Colorado. One young mother she counseled […]
Posted inGrowth
Colorado is set to invest more in affordable housing than ever before. And it nearly spent even more.
Colorado’s set to make what could be the largest ongoing investments in affordable housing in the state’s history. And yet, some housing advocates will walk away a little disappointed about what might have been. Just days ago, a package of bills moving through the state legislature would have invested more than $600 million in affordable […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Colorado’s legislature is taking on the affordable housing crisis
When session began in January, Speaker KC Becker asked the chamber to tackle the rising cost of housing here in Colorado. Our constituents are also calling on the legislature to address the affordable housing crisis in our state. Many Coloradans are being driven out of the communities they grew up in while others can barely […]
Posted inBusiness, Growth, News
Telluride isn’t immune to Colorado’s high country housing problem. But it’s finding a solution in diversification
TELLURIDE — Lance McDonald walks onto the sprawling new deck overlooking his town. “Look at this view,” he says, arms wide as he takes in the pink glow bouncing off the snowy peaks in the box canyon. “How nice would this have been when I first got here?” McDonald moved to Telluride in the late […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Carman: The Millennial caucus just might have the solution to runaway gentrification
I’m pretty sure I unintentionally helped gentrify a neighborhood in the 1970s before gentrification was a word. My then-husband and I bought a house in a tired neighborhood in Vancouver, Wash., cleaned, painted and refurbished it, and sold it a year later for a 19 percent profit. That put another $6,000 in our pockets to […]
Posted inColoradans, Growth, News, Politics and Government
As development plans flood Denver’s poorest neighborhood, fear of gentrification lingers
Carolyn Chavez has called Denver’s Sun Valley neighborhood home for 66 years. It’s where she raised six children, and eventually, five of her 10 grandchildren. For decades, she watched friends and family move elsewhere; neighborhood children go off to college or fall into the grips of addiction. She was there when the new Mile High […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Growth, News
Denver’s Westwood warily watches redevelopment happen. Can it stay true to its roots when gentrification looms?
Mayra Martinez can roll out of bed in an apartment that’s among the newest construction in Denver’s Westwood neighborhood and slip behind her desk at the law firm across the street in a matter of minutes. She pays a little over $1,000 a month for the one-bedroom space, utilities included. That’s a bargain in the […]
Posted inGrowth, News, Politics and Government
A study on gentrification made 12 recommendations for Denver. Three years later, here’s where the city stands.
More than two years after it issued its report, the city has implemented a variety of measures to address concerns identified in the study. Some programs, such as jobs associated with highway construction, fall under the purview of the state or another jurisdiction. The Sun asked the city’s Office of Economic Development for a […]
Posted inBusiness, Growth, News
Affordable housing crisis threatens vitality of Colorado’s high-country economies
VAIL — Willa Williford, an affordable housing consultant who has worked across Colorado’s high country, this week tallied some classified ads in the Crested Butte News. In Wednesday’s edition of her hometown paper there were 85 listings for jobs, from entry-level gigs to high-paying executive jobs. There were 11 listings for rental properties, most of […]