More than 120,000 metro Denver households had no savings or investments last year and nearly 40,000 homes in the five- county region survived on less than $5,000 a year, a new housing study shows.
The American Housing Survey, a collaboration between the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, says tens of thousands of families were “uncomfortably cold” in their homes last winter, lived in significant poverty or complained about water quality, neighborhood crime and noise.
Black and Latino households tended to have older and smaller homes and reported higher instances of home and neighborhood problems than the metro area as a whole.
While most residents generally reported liking where they live, economic experts said the study offers a grim view of thousands of families susceptible to a fluctuating economy.
“This shows that we have people literally living paycheck to paycheck at best, and that’s a problem,” said Jeff Romine, a research economist with the University of Colorado at Boulder. “If we hit another recession, or something goes wrong in these people’s lives, there are going to be some serious consequences.”
According to the survey of 3,788 occupied residences in Adams, Arapahoe, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties, the number of families living below the poverty line grew more than 2 percentage points since the last such survey in 1995.
Last year, about 84,700 families lived below the poverty line, or roughly one-tenth of the 855,700 metro-area households.
The poverty figures mirror rates in Atlanta, Hartford, Conn., and Indianapolis, according to the study, but fall below higher-poverty cities such as Memphis, Tenn., New Orleans and San Antonio.
Still, long-term financial problems persist in the Denver metro area. More than 200,000 households earned less than $25,000 last year. About 121,000 of those had no savings or investments.
Mavis Salazar, who has no savings and lives in a brick one- story home in Lakewood, scratches by on the $15 an hour her husband makes as a truck driver.
Raising three children on one income, the family lives on an inexpensive diet of beans, rice and tortillas and battles ever- increasing utility and water bills at their 48-year-old home.
“It is a struggle,” Salazar said. “Everything is a concern.”
Though she considers neighborhood traffic “horrendous,” Salazar said she likes where she lives and has no intention of moving. “It would be hard to leave because I have lived here all my life,” she said.
Denver metro residents generally liked their homes and neighborhoods, the survey shows, though Latino and black households rated them slightly lower than did others.
In nearly a third of black households, residents said crime was an issue. Overall, roughly one-fifth of metro households complained about crime.
“No matter where you go, minorities in many circumstances face greater challenges,” said Kathi Williams, director of the Colorado Division of Housing. “It goes hand in hand that lower- priced homes and apartments would put you in areas where you would have more” crime and traffic.
Mike Mundy, a security guard from Edgewater, is one of those feeling the pinch. He says he must sell his home or risk foreclosure.
In 1995, Mundy paid $45,000 for the two-bedroom, one bath, 700-square-foot home but found that he couldn’t keep up with his mortgage and other expenses.
Now, the 49-year-old said, he hopes to sell it for $89,000.
“I have to sell it,” Mundy said. “It’s kind of tough for the average working man to make it.”
Computer-assisted reporting editor Jeffrey A. Roberts contributed to this report.
Staff writer Robert Sanchez can be reached at 303-820-1282 or rsanchez@denverpost.com.
