Those interested in seeing more affordable housing in metro Denver only have to look a few miles to the north for a role model.
Boulder and Broomfield counties have added 2,100 permanently affordable homes in the past 10 years, roughly the same amount that were created in the previous 25 years. The total now stands at about 4,200.
How did they do it?
“It boils down to political will,” said Aaron Miripol, executive director of Thistle Community Housing, a Boulder nonprofit. “Politicians (here) know the cost of living is high, and they’re experienced in getting the money needed to address affordable housing issues.”
Over the past five years, two sales tax hikes have been approved that allowed the cities to supplement federal housing dollars.
“Very few communities in Colorado work to put local money into affordable housing,” Miripol said. “Instead, they rely on federal dollars.” But “nonprofits have been very aggressive and creative,” he added.
His organization is among the most creative, adding 516 homes to Boulder’s stock during the past 10 years. Thistle gained national recognition for its use of community land trusts, acquiring property with long-term leases and then making it available for affordable housing.
Its latest project involved signing a 99-year renewable master lease in December on the land beneath Mapleton Mobile Home Park. Residents are now assured of permanently affordable housing in the state’s first such park and one of only a few in the country. Thistle is spending an additional $2 million to upgrade the park’s infrastructure.
Miripol commends members of Thistle’s board for such moves. They are developers, real estate agents and bankers “who understand real estate deals and how they’re put together,” Miripol said. “They know real estate development, asset management and how to work with local municipalities to get things done, and they’ve given Thistle the green light to make deals.”
The agency was formed in 1985 as a joint venture between the city of Boulder and the Center for People with Disabilities. Then called Boulder Best, it was charged with operating a new 19-unit apartment building that served people with disabilities.
Four years later, Boulder’s Housing Authority broadened the agency’s mission to oversee all the county’s affordable housing needs, renamed it Thistle Community Housing and turned it into a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit. That status is a critical part of Thistle’s ability to serve lower-income clients and get grants and subsidies, Miripol said.
The group’s holdings have grown from the original 19-unit building to more than 700 permanently affordable homes in Boulder County and the surrounding area. Yet Miripol says Front Range residents continue to be displaced by soaring real estate prices. Historically, property has appreciated at an annualized rate between 10 percent and 20 percent, while wages in 2002 rose by less than 5 percent.
Proponents of affordable housing say the cost of housing affects more than the indigent or disabled. “It affects single parents, seniors and even firefighters, teachers and police,” Miripol said.
Most of Thistle’s residents are employed in roles that constitute the backbone of the Front Range service economy: nursing, social services, public health, libraries, building and retail.
Alan Goldberg lives on a fixed income because of a disability, and says he was grateful to find the apartment he now occupies at Boulder’s Valmont Square. “It’s very close to everything so I can walk to get to just about anything I need,” he said.
He pays $850 a month for a two-bedroom, two-story apartment at 29th and Valmont – about $50 below market price for that size apartment.
Denver slowly catching up
Affordable housing needs don’t stop at the Boulder county line. Denver has had a “jobs-housing mismatch” for many years, according to Marianne LeClair, program manager for The Workforce Housing Initiative. “The median price of homes continues to rise, and there has been no raise in the minimum wage to help.”
It’s particularly bad in Denver because the city is such a “desirable place” to live, she said. “You have demand for housing, and that drives up the costs.”
A 2-year-old Denver ordinance requires developers to reserve 10 percent of homes in projects of 30 homes or more for those earning less than Denver’s annual median income of $56,311. The ordinance gives developers a $5,000 rebate for each unit priced at or below a certain percentage of the area’s median income, depending on the size of the development.
Boulder requires developers to set aside 20 percent of their homes as affordable, then gives density bonuses, parking reductions and fee waivers for the affordable units.
Jacky Morales-Ferrand, head of Denver’s department of Housing and Neighborhood Development Services, said some of the language in Denver’s ordinance needs revisions, as do “appropriate incentives” for developers. “There has been some resistance to the ordinance,” she said, “but I think we can fix the problems.”
The Denver-based Colorado Housing Investment Fund Coalition is mounting a campaign to raise real estate fees. The proceeds would help fund affordable homes and rental properties and provide qualified buyers with down payment assistance.
Coalition spokesperson Britta Fisher is adamant that Denver needs more affordable housing.
“Many of us drive further and further to find housing we can afford, contributing to traffic and sprawl,” Fisher said. “It only takes one setback to start the spiral into homelessness.”
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Success at meeting housing needs
Since 1989, more than 9,000 Boulder County residents have been served by Thistle Community Housing. The nonprofit’s properties include:
Rental properties
19 accessible homes for residents with disabilities in Boulder
78 one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom townhomes, four of which are accessible, in Boulder
48 one-, two- and three-bedroom homes, up to three of which are accessible, in Boulder
131 one- and two-bedroom homes in Longmont. Up to eight are accessible.
286 one- and two-bedroom apartments in Northglenn
Community land trusts
15 two- and three-bedroom condos in northeast Boulder
Nine two- to four-bedroom homes in Lafayette and Longmont
New one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom condos, townhomes and detached homes in Boulder
Three two-bedroom condos in downtown Boulder
135 mobile homes in north Boulder
Source: Thistle Community Housing
