But in a seemingly contradictory trend that has continued from last year, a wide plurality of voters still view the city as headed in the right direction. Compared to other figures in city politics, Johnston’s favorability rating outpaced those of his lesser-known opponents in next year’s election — but fell short of congressional candidate Melat Kiros, who had a net-positive rating among voters.

The Colorado Polling Institute’s surveys have found that Johnston’s favorability has steadily fallen since 2024, when 48% said they have a favorable opinion of him and 38% said they viewed him in a negative light. In 2025, 46% saw him favorably and 46% unfavorably. In , 39% of city voters viewed him favorably.

Most voters have consistently said over the years that Johnston, who was elected in 2023, is moving the city in the right direction but that he still needs to do more, according to the results.

“It’s these voters who, early in his term, were saying: ‘I’m seeing some progress. That’s good. I think he needs to do more.’ And as his term has worn on, those voters have become more and more dissatisfied,” said Kevin Ingham, a pollster who is the Democratic half of CPI’s bipartisan research team. “I think we’re just getting to a point in his term where even if people can see something’s moving in the right direction, they don’t feel like the things have moved fast enough or that they have quite lived up to the promises that he made.”

The survey of 400 likely voters in the November election was conducted Aug. 11-15. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

In the 2025 survey, Ingham said most people who reported negative associations with Johnston had specific reasons. This year, nearly half of those surveyed just made general comments about him simply not doing a good job.

About a quarter of those who did approve of his performance cited his work on homelessness as the reason why. His efforts on homelessness had mixed results in the poll overall. When asked about that issue specifically, the share of people saying he has made “significant progress” doubled between 2024 and 2026, from 8% to 16%. However, that’s still lower than the 18% who said this year that Johnston had made homelessness worse.

Homelessness is still seen as voters’ top issue in Denver, followed by affordable housing and crime.

In a statement responding to the poll results, Johnston spokesman Jon Ewing said, “Denverites agree: the city is better today than it was before Mayor Johnston took office. From historic reductions in homelessness and crime to transformative investments in affordable housing and downtown recovery, Denver residents see the progress and believe the city is moving in the right direction, even as they expect us to keep delivering.”

Lori Weigel, the group’s Republican pollster, said it’s difficult for the group to say whether the results might be predictive of the 2027 mayoral election, when Johnston will run for a second term.

“Elections are about choices,” she said. “The focus is not going to be (only) on the mayor — there’s going to be an opponent, there’s going to be a contrast there.”

Other candidates and issues

As Johnston’s approval decreases, slightly more of Denverites surveyed said they viewed socialism favorably.

In CPI’s 2025 poll, 52% of voters said they had a positive view of socialism. This year it was 55%. The share of respondents who said they have a “very favorable” view of socialism rose from 20% to 25% during that time. About the same share of people reported having a positive view of capitalism — about 47% of respondents — in 2025 and 2026.

“There’s some pretty stark divisions of opinion towards socialism and capitalism by age,” Ingham said. “Younger voters are pretty down on capitalism.”

Voters appeared to be generally dissatisfied with the status quo more than specifically unhappy with capitalism, he said. Most people who mentioned a favorable view of socialism pointed to universal healthcare, a fairer economy and “taxing the rich.”

That’s in line with an electorate that recently chose Kiros, a democratic socialist, as the Democratic nominee for Colorado’s 1st Congressional District. Kiros, who made national headlines when she defeated 15-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in June, also saw a higher favorability rating than DeGette in the recent poll.

Nearly 45% of voters said they viewed her favorably compared to 35% who said the same of DeGette, according to the results. About 30% said they had a negative view of Kiros and nearly 50% said they view DeGette unfavorably.

The pollsters also asked for input about how voters view two of Johnston’s opponents in his upcoming bid for reelection: Lisa Calderón and City Councilwoman Shontel Lewis.

Lewis, whom the Denver chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America just endorsed, had less name recognition and favorability than Calderón, who’s run twice before. About 65% of respondents said they had never heard of Lewis, while 47% said they had never heard of Calderón. Only 15% said they had a favorable view of Lewis and 19% said they had an unfavorable view, with the rest having no opinion. Calderón saw 27% favorability, compared to 25% unfavorability.

Slightly more respondents than last year said they viewed the City Council unfavorably, with 44% reporting negative associations. The Denver Public School Board continues to have a steady low favorability, with only 25% of voters viewing the board and its members in a positive light, according to the results.

Denverites reported that their top three issues for the city are homelessness, affordable housing and crime.

The first three times, the Denver-based firm expanded within the building at 210 University Blvd., where it started with six employees in a windowless basement.

“The office space … right now is a combination of multiple spaces, and it took a minor miracle for that to come together,” co-founder Yoni Gruskin said. “We’ve just been constantly working through this Cherry Creek office space jigsaw puzzle.”

But the puzzle will soon be over. The business founded by Gruskin and Connor Larr recently leased a 21,000-square-foot office at 250 Fillmore St. in Cherry Creek, a few blocks away.

Ulysses today has a team of 60 and is active in nearly a dozen states. It����ap built 2,700 apartments and is actively building or planning 3,000 more, including a multiphase project on the Central Park train station’s parking lot.

The business currently occupies 16,000 square feet on the second and fourth floors of 210 University. Gruskin said Ulysses’ next move should be its last for a while.

“We feel that where we’re moving into, we should be able to stay for the entire 10-year term of that lease,” he said.

The company’s growth is a testament to the demand for income-restricted housing across the country, Gruskin said. But the scale and pace of the work have required larger and larger teams. Nearly all of its employees come to the office five days a week.

“The office is super important because that����ap how you can be successful and scale in this business,” said Larr.

The two wanted to stay put in Cherry Creek, the city’s hottest office market, where space is tight, and rents are high. Ulysses was also working against its own internal clock, needing to add more employees in short order to keep up with its growth. That made leasing space in a planned office building or one under construction a nonstarter due to uncertainty about timing.

Fortunately, their office broker spotted an opportunity. Spaces, a coworking firm, was leaving its office space on the third floor of 250 Fillmore. Ulysses quickly jumped on the opportunity.

“The exercise in Cherry Creek is either paying very close attention to lease expirations or moves, which don’t happen frequently,” Larr said.

The path forward is to keep building and to add more services to the buildings. Ulysses works with a third-party property management company to help run its complexes, but some residents require extra care and attention that the developer wants to provide itself.

One such example is up in Broomfield, where the company is building the 152-unit Harvest Hill project. Several apartments will be reserved for those with intellectual disabilities. And in Phoenix, Arizona, Ulysses reserved a handful of units for women escaping domestic violence or sex trafficking at a new build.

The company doesn’t just do ground-up work, either. In Eagle, it recently completed a 120-unit project that nearly saw its 30-year income-restriction covenants expire. Ulysses purchased the building, spent $90,000 per unit on renovations, and renewed the income restrictions for an additional 60 years.

Larr added that the building makes up half of the income-restricted housing stock in the tiny mountain town off Interstate 70.

“The thing we love about the affordable housing space is that no two projects are the same,” Gruskin said.

Gruskin and Larr met in New York City in their first year out of college, when they both worked as analysts at Citibank’s municipal bond division. The two then worked together at real estate firm Related Cos. Gruskin focused on income-restricted housing while Larr worked on large, mixed-use projects.

Larr, 38, who is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, stayed out East while the 37-year-old Gruskin, a Denver native, eventually moved to California. The two stayed in touch throughout the years, and when Gruskin began laying the groundwork for Ulysses in late 2020, he knew Larr would make the perfect business partner.

The name Ulysses comes from the title of a poem written by Alfred Tennyson.

“’Tis not too late to seek a newer world,” Gruskin said, quoting the poem.

“This is a hard business we’re in, but ultimately we want to remember why we’re doing it, and know that if we go headfirst in these challenges, there’s a great deal we can accomplish,” he said.

Read more from our partner, .

Johnston, who was first elected in 2023, has focused on major upgrades throughout the city, including plans for a new women’s soccer stadium, a new Broncos stadium and development of Park Hill Park. He’s also prioritized decreasing street homelessness and bringing life back to the city’s urban core.

The filing, a long-anticipated step from Johnston, makes good on the mayor’s previously announced plan to run for a second term.

“I’m so proud of the work we’ve accomplished together over the last three years,” he said in a statement. “We’ve helped thousands of people move from the streets to housing, lowered crime and stood up to Donald Trump’s attacks on our values. We’ve brought life to downtown, invested in our neighborhoods and made it easier to grow a business. But the job’s not finished. The cost of living is too high, owning a home remains out of reach for too many, and childcare is too expensive — if you can find it at all.

“There are still people on the streets who need help and businesses that deserve support. We’ll solve these issues together and we’ll continue fighting to make Denver safer, more vibrant, and more affordable for all.”

Since he was elected, Johnston has seen mixed success on the ballot. His administration proposed a sales tax increase in 2024 that would have funded affordable housing. Voters narrowly rejected it. Then in 2025, Denverites approved the $950 million Vibrant Denver bond package.

In his recent State of the City address, he continued to shoot for the moon as he promised he would deliver a universal childcare program for the city within the next five years.

Johnston will take on who have entered the race so far, including Councilwoman Shontel Lewis, previous mayoral candidate Lisa Calderón, Aurelio Martinez, Robert Treta, Kenneth Simpson, Graylon Millen Cole, Samantha Nazish, Xander Thomas and Durango Dank.

The mayor’s critics have argued that his leadership style has overly prioritized major projects without following through on basic city services. His office also oversaw a major budget crisis, leading to 169 layoffs, last year.

Election day will be April 6. Each of Denver’s 13 council seats will also be on the ballot in the spring.

Wednesday marks three months since the 2026 legislative session concluded, meaning it’s a standard start date for legislation that either didn’t take effect immediately or doesn’t have a specific start date. More than 200 new laws take effect in whole or in part — a tally that would’ve been even larger were it not for Gov. Jared Polis’ record 11 vetoes this year.

Under the new laws, school districts are required . An existing tax credit, , gets a multi-year extension. Colorado gamblers can no longer use credit cards to deposit money into sports betting apps, and their deposits will be limited to six per day.

What Colorado bills are becoming laws?

A rolls into effect, requiring state agencies to more regularly examine their rules and report their findings back to lawmakers. New parents who wish to voluntarily relinquish their child to hospitals, firefighters or a community emergency center without facing a child abuse charge.

makes it a misdemeanor offense to knowingly place food or edible trash in the open "in circumstances where there is a reasonable probability of luring a wild bear." requires law enforcement to offer voluntary alcohol breath tests for drivers involved in a crash that kill or seriously injured someone else. That law is named for Magnus White, a cyclist who was struck and killed in Boulder County in 2023.

Here are some of the other laws taking effect Wednesday:

Social media search warrants

In the wake of a 2025 veto and the subsequent shooting at Evergreen High School in Jefferson County, Colorado lawmakers this year passed . The law requires social media companies with more than 1 million monthly users to set up "streamlined" processes for law enforcement to contact the companies about search warrants. The companies are also generally required to comply with search warrants within 72 hours and to provide regular updates about the warrants' status.

Polis vetoed a more sweeping version of the bill, which included other regulations on social media companies, last year, and he also vetoed another version of SB 11 after the legislative session adjourned in May.

Lawmakers had vowed to bring back the 2025 proposal even before the Evergreen shooting, in which two students were wounded and the shooter died by suicide. After the September 2025 shooting, law enforcement said the social media companies were slow to produce information about the shooter's online profiles, which included posts idolizing of other mass shooters.

Slowing scams of vulnerable adults

Under , banks in Colorado can now delay providing funds to vulnerable adults, meaning those over the age of 70 or who are otherwise "susceptible to mistreatment or self-neglect" because of their health status. The law is aimed at blunting financial scams that often target older adults, which frequently include prompting victims to withdraw large sums of money at once.

The bipartisan law also requires certain bank employees to report potential exploitation to law enforcement or other local authorities.

Protections for Colorado ag products

Counterfeit Palisade peaches' days are numbered.

Under , only agricultural products actually grown in Colorado can be identified and advertised as Colorado-raised. It also prohibits companies or growers from using the "Colorado Proud" designation or logo -- a program of the state Department of Agriculture -- unless the ag agency gives them permission.

Violations of the law are a deceptive trade practice, which can be investigated by the state attorney general's office.

New safety requirements for ride-hailing companies

For the second year, lawmakers weighed new safety requirements for ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft. implements a number of new rules, including specific background check rules, amid . Many of those new requirements don't kick in until Jan. 1.

But as of Wednesday, the companies will be required to review drivers who have been the subject of a complaint, either from a rider or from the state Public Utilities Commission. That review may lead to the driver's suspension from the app. The companies will also be required to conduct these deactivation reviews if they're notified by law enforcement that the driver has "serious felony allegations," House Democrats said in a news release. That includes charges of sexual misconduct or stalking.

Affordable housing

The first bill introduced in the upper chamber this year, gives county and municipal governments the authority to sell their buildings and other property -- other than parks -- if the land is going to be used for affordable housing or another identified local housing need.

The bipartisan law also gives county commissioners the ability to use certain local tax revenue for workforce housing and other housing programs.

Discrimination in schools

Amid the Trump administration's gutting of the U.S. Department of Education, expands Colorado's existing anti-discrimination laws to include discriminatory practices in K-12 schools, as well as institutions of higher education. The law prohibits excluding students from activities and programs, teaching students differently than their similar peers, and failing to take steps to stop hostile environments, among other protections.

It also expands anti-harassment rules to include students who are pregnant, and it seeks to add existing federal civil rights protections and processes for higher ed students into Colorado's statute book.

“As the Trump administration slashes funding for the federal Office of Civil Rights, the time is now to strengthen civil rights protections to protect students in Colorado," Rep. Jennifer Bacon, a Denver Democrat who sponsored the law, said in a statement. "Our schools should be a safe place for students to learn and grow, and together we’re creating a positive learning environment for all students.”

A year after a Denver district judge ruled that Monica Villela’s home never should have been sold to Welcome to Realty LLC in a foreclosure auction, the investor who bought the house now wants the Colorado Supreme Court to intervene. That investor, Christophe Attard, is challenging the lower court’s ruling that the city’s inclusionary housing ordinance trumps a lien placed on the house by a homeowners association or metro district.

Earlier this year, the Colorado Court of Appeals sided with Denver, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, as the city attempts to protect its housing ordinance. The law allows price caps on certain homes to keep them affordable, then restricts who can buy them, based on income.

Welcome to Realty argues that the first two legal rulings could overturn a 48-year-old precedent in Colorado that gives special districts a “super priority lien” over mortgages, and that the city’s housing ordinance should not trump that foreclosure power. That 1978 case — Wasson vs. Hogenson — established the prevailing law in the state.

The appeals court’s decision “presents an epochal shift in how special districts can fund and collect on the assessments owed to them from liens against the properties they serve,” Welcome to Realty’s petition to the Colorado Supreme Court states.

Meanwhile, Villela and her four children are staying with family after being evicted from the Green Valley Ranch home by Attard, stuck in limbo as they await a legal outcome. Villela’s supporters and community activists have raised enough money to buy the home back from Attard, but they say he has declined the offer.

The Special District Association of Colorado filed a brief in support of Welcome to Realty, saying special districts — including those that levy taxes to fund libraries, fire departments and water — rely on fees to provide public services. And liens are a tool for making sure those districts are paid by those who live in them.

“Almost none of the services provided by special districts can happen without significant future planning, and without dependable sources of revenue, that planning is nearly impossible,” the association’s brief argues.

Ann Terry, executive director of the Special District Association of Colorado, said her organization’s interest lies in protecting the priority of liens under Colorado law.

“We’re just in this on a very narrow issue on the priority of the lien,” Terry said. “Local governments have always had a priority on a lien.”

Efforts to reach Attard and his lawyer, Christopher Conant, were unsuccessful.

Melissa Sisneros, a spokeswoman for the Denver City Attorney’s Office, declined to comment on the case but noted, “We will continue to pursue all remedies available to the city to protect its interests.”

Mounting HOA fees and fines

The saga over Villela’s home began in March 2022 when the house on Netherland Place in Green Valley Ranch sold at a foreclosure auction.

Villela’s family had bought their home in 2005. They made regular mortgage payments and kept up with their HOA’s rules and fees. But the family began struggling when Villela and her husband, Gilardo Gonzalez Jr., separated.

Gonzalez continued to pay the mortgage, but Villela, who was living in their house with the couple’s four children, could not keep up with the maintenance required by the Town Center Metro District and the homeowners association.

In Colorado, metro districts are elected boards that levy taxes on developments so builders can use the money for critical infrastructure such as street lights and sidewalks. Those elected boards often work in conjunction with homeowners associations to manage neighborhoods and properties, which is the case in Villela’s neighborhood in far northeast Denver.

Villela’s fines for infractions such as weeds in her yard or a garbage can left on the curb multiplied. Then late fees for unpaid fines stacked up.

Villela said she knew the family was in arrears, but put those expenses on the back burner because of other struggles connected to her and her husband’s separation.

The metro district placed a lien on the house, and a judge ordered it to be sold at a foreclosure auction, which happened in December 2021.

Villela’s family owed more than $20,000 in unpaid fines and fees to the metro district and its lawyers, according to court documents filed in the case. The debt also included $15 per month on unpaid fines and fees as well as annual 8% interest on the debt.

Foreclosure auctions forced by metro districts and homeowners associations cause homeowners to lose thousands of dollars in equity. Villela’s family, for example, bought their house in 2005 for $164,200. It was valued at more than $300,000 when it was sold at the January 2022 auction for $23,524.

Villela said she was not aware the house had been sold until Attard showed up in her driveway in March 2022 with documents showing he had purchased it.

She was floored.

However, the Netherland Place home was bound by Denver’s inclusionary housing ordinance, which sets affordability covenants on some homes. It sets price caps on those homes when they are resold, and it prevents those homes from being sold to investors.

Denver takes matter to court

The city sued Welcome to Realty, Attard’s investment company.

In April 2025, Denver District Judge Mark T. Bailey ruled that Welcome to Realty must sell the house because it does not meet the city’s rules for purchasing homes with affordability covenants.

Bailey’s order also placed an injunction prohibiting Attard from leasing the house and, because affordability covenants eventually expire, the judge demanded the clock reset to account for the three years Welcome to Realty had owned the house.

Villela and her children continued to live in the house, without paying rent but maintaining the mortgage and its upkeep, until last summer when Attard obtained a court order for their eviction. He came to the house while Villela was home, and she begged him to let her family stay until the court case is resolved.

“I was asking for more time and he said, ‘No. No more time,'” Villela said. “It was like a nightmare.”

Villela and her children, ages 15, 17, 19 and 21, now are living with her ex-husband’s parents. There are eight people in the house, and it has been difficult for her teenagers.

“We haven’t been able to find our place,” she said. “Sometimes it’s difficult for the kids to understand why this takes so long.”

Villela’s hands are tied because the court case is between the investor and Denver. She can only wait for the legal dueling to end and then learn the fate of the home.

If the state Supreme Court declines to accept the case, then Welcome to Realty loses its right to own the house and must sell.

The Denver court judge’s ruling said the house must be sold under affordable housing covenants, but it did not specify that Villela should get first rights to buy it. The investor could sell the home to someone else.

Trying to buy back house

Community groups and affordable housing advocates have raised enough money for Villela to buy the house from Attard at the price he paid at auction, plus additional money so that he could turn a small profit, said Kevin Patterson of the , an advocacy group that fights discriminatory housing practices.

They have reached out to Attard with financial offers. He has declined, they said.

Zach Neumann, executive director of the , which provides legal aid to people during a housing crisis, said the best-case scenario for Villela would be the state Supreme Court declining to take the case. He hopes that is the outcome since two courts have already ruled against Welcome to Realty.

If the higher court takes the case, Villela’s home would be in limbo for at least another year because of the time it takes for cases to be adjudicated.

Neumann fears a victory for Welcome to Realty would harm others whose homes fall under Denver’s inclusionary housing ordinance and are subject to foreclosures by metro districts and HOAs.

Meanwhile, the house sits empty in Green Valley Ranch because Attard’s company is not allowed to rent it or sell it, pending the court cases.

“The system feels like gangsters — a criminal mafia — coming after me,” Villela said. “They’re getting richer and richer and displacing my kids from a beautiful home.”

Jessica Trowbridge, a spokesperson for King Soopers and City Market, said last week that the company has identified a buyer for the vacant property at 825 S. Colorado Blvd. and is working through the details of the sale.

The company did not name the buyer or provide additional details.

In June, BusinessDen reported that Denver-based Kentro Group was looking to buy the site, and after pushback from neighbors, had agreed not to seek rezoning, which would have allowed a taller building.

Kentro Group, alongside San Antonio-based Embrey and its development team, has made another proposal to redevelop the 7-acre center at the southwest corner of East Exposition Avenue and Colorado Boulevard.

Norris Design, a Denver-based architecture and planning firm, submitted a formal site development plan letter in May on behalf of Embrey, detailing plans for a four-story, wrap-style apartment building with 347 residential units on approximately 5 acres.

The multifamily property will feature studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units.

In accordance with the city’s affordable housing requirements, the letter also said 10% (35 units) of the project����ap residential units will be leased at 60% of the Area Median Income. The affordable units include three studio units, 19 one-bedroom units, 12 two-bedroom units and one three-bedroom unit.

Although plans with a buyer appear to be moving forward, the project still faces additional steps before advancing. As of Monday afternoon, the Denver Permitting and Licensing Center’s online portal listed the project����ap formal site development plan record status as “resubmittal required,” while the overall project is “in progress.”

Alexandra Foster, communications director for the city’s Community Planning and Development department, said on Monday that the department is awaiting a resubmittal of the site development plan for the multifamily project after completing its initial review.

“We are actively advancing the project through the city’s review and permitting process, including responding to the comments received on our site development plan. We remain fully committed to the project,” Casey Klein, vice president of development at Embrey, said in an email statement to The Post on Friday.

The former King Soopers grocery store served the community for more than 50 years before closing in June and relocating to a new $37 million store at 4201 E. Arkansas Ave.

The new location, developed by the Kentro Group, is about a mile south of the shopping center in Denver’s Virginia Village neighborhood.

Other plans at the center include Dardano’s interest in redeveloping a 1.35-acre site at 865 S. Colorado Blvd. for a new shoe store. The property, which sits adjacent to the former King Soopers, is currently occupied by a vacant liquor store building.

Documents submitted to the city in May by G3 Architecture Inc. on behalf of Dardano’s said the proposed project involves demolishing the existing 8,884-square-foot liquor store building and replacing it with a new 14,910-square-foot, single-story, single-tenant building featuring a 3,124-square-foot mezzanine.

The proposed building would be 18,034 square feet, with 57 parking spaces on-site, and along E. Ohio Ave.

Foster said the department is awaiting a formal site development plan application submittal following the proposed Dardano’s store’s release from concept review.

Representatives from the shoe retailer did not respond to several requests for comment regarding project details.

This is a developing story and may be updated. 

Tell us what you think about this story

Colorado’s struggles to improve housing affordability inform many of the federal housing reforms, which should leave the state in a better spot to “connect the dots” and implement the changes coming.

“Colorado has always been on the cutting edge. We are so far ahead of other states,” said U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, who made sure some state innovations were included in the 60 provisions in the ROAD Act, short for Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream.

For example, Colorado’s approach of providing local governments with incentives to allow more ADUs — accessory dwelling units, such as backyard cottages or garage apartments — and transit-oriented development is being replicated in the new law, Hickenlooper said.

The state has been a leader in providing financial and regulatory support for modular and other innovative construction methods. That local effort, spearheaded by Gov. Jared Polis, is about to embark on a national tour.

The ROAD Act will make it easier for state housing finance agencies, like the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA), to pair federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) with state-backed debt funds.

In 2022, Colorado voters agreed to set aside 0.1% of state income tax revenues for a State Affordable Fund. CHFA has gained national recognition for how it has leveraged the Proposition 123 funds for uses like land banking, funding construction innovation and incentivizing municipal zoning reforms — versions of which are in the federal legislation.

CHFA has pushed to raise national bank lending limits on affordable projects, which have been set at 15%. The ROAD Act raises those “Public Welfare Investment” caps to 20%, unlocking billions of dollars in additional private bank tax equity.

“A lot of the efforts that Colorado and similar states have made are being acknowledged through this bill and are being supported at the federal level,” said Tyler Jaeckel, director of the Colorado Division of Housing.

Jaeckel said the legislation signals a clear federal recognition of state-level innovation.

The ROAD Act also provides the regulatory relief that the real estate industry argues is critical. The National Association of Home Builders estimates that government regulations, from local to federal, .

The ROAD Act tries to soften costs by providing exemptions under the National Environmental Policy Act for infill housing, small developments with 15 or fewer units, and property acquisitions dedicated to affordable housing.

Structural reform vs. direct subsidies

Rather than distributing direct safety-net assistance like housing vouchers, the ROAD Act favors a mix of development incentives and regulatory reforms to expand housing supply over time.

That clear-the-path approach, however, leaves some housing advocates concerned that immediate needs aren’t being met.

“We only serve 1 out of 4 eligible Americans who desperately require a housing voucher, many of whom are our elders,” said Peter LiFari, the executive director of Maiker Housing Partners, the housing authority in Adams County. “They need our support as a nation. This bill could have made that happen.”

LiFari argued the bill arrived 20 years too late and noted its proposed financial investments paled in comparison to annual defense spending.

Likening the package to “vanilla ice cream,” LiFari joins those offering a polite golf clap: Pleased it passed, but wishing it had dared to do more.

No quick fixes offered

Where to place the ROAD to Housing Act in a historic context remains up for debate. Experts agree it won’t offer immediate relief like emergency pandemic programs, although they hope it establishes a lasting foundation.

Is it the most significant housing reform since the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act of 1990 or the Fair Housing Act of 1968?

Kinsey Hasstedt, Colorado director of state and local policy for Enterprise Community Partners, views it as the biggest event in housing policy since the National Housing Act of 1934, which created the FHA and the modern mortgage system.

“I think it����ap monumental and has the potential to do a lot of good,” Hasstedt said. “I also think that, realistically, nothing is going to happen fast. There are a lot of provisions that need appropriations, and there are provisions that require future rulemaking.”

Like Sen. Hickenlooper, U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Democrat representing central Colorado’s 7th Congressional District, saw provisions she had originally authored folded into the final package.

She called its passage a “glimmer of hope” that Congress can still enact sweeping legislation.

“Like all urgent issues, this is going to be an all-hands-on-deck approach, or it needs to be, for a long period of time,” she said. “This does not solve everything.”

She highlights the bill’s $200 million competitive grant program for local governments willing to reform land-use rules to boost housing density and supply.

That’s a drop in the bucket compared to the $2 trillion in capital required to close what Zillow estimates is a deficit of 4.5 million U.S. homes.

“We really do need massive federal investment to bring down the costs for regular people, to bring back the opportunity of that foundational piece of the American dream,” she said.

New programs will need to win appropriations. But updating existing programs should deliver more funding flexibility in the near-term for affordable housing developments, Hasstedt said.

“I think it����ap a huge opportunity for housing and affordability, and it����ap going to take some time for all of it to shake out,” she said.

Caps on large investors

The one provision that has drawn more attention than any other is Title X, which caps single-family home ownership by large institutional investors at 350 homes.

Owners above that cap are grandfathered in, but they are prohibited from making additional purchases on the open market.

Institutional investors control between 1% and 2% of the nationwide single-family housing stock, and close to 4% of the rental housing stock, .

Small mom-and-pop landlords with under 10 homes control about 85% of the rental market.

Hasstedt served on a task force last year that estimated was held by large corporations.

Several barriers complicated the calculation, however, and she hopes that the ROAD Act’s transparency rules will make corporate tracking easier in the future.

Data shows that corporate buyers have heavily targeted homes at lower price points, crowding out first-time buyers.

Specific neighborhoods in Aurora, Commerce City and eastern Colorado Springs have above-average concentrations of institutional ownership, which can make it harder for people to buy starter homes and leave them subject to upward rent pressures.

Higher interest rates and narrower operating margins have already from their 2021 peak and institutional sales are increasing this summer after the passage of the new law.

Institutional capital is pivoting to a “build-to-rent” or BTR strategy — constructing dedicated rental communities rather than buying up existing housing stock.

Earlier versions of the ROAD Act would have forced BTR owners to sell their homes after seven years while offering tenants a right of first refusal to buy.

The real estate industry successfully lobbied to remove those restrictions, arguing forced sales would stifle new construction.

“Some of the most disruptive provisions of the earlier version of the bill that were extremely concerning did get modified,” said David Sinkley, president of Boulder Creek Neighborhoods, a Lafayette-based homebuilder.

Homebuilders rely on the BTR market to absorb excess inventory when the for-sale market slows, he said.

Without that off-ramp, builders would be forced to slash prices, threatening the equity held by recent buyers or to idle construction crews.

Between 2006 and 2012, Colorado lost 80% of its active homebuilders. Construction capacity wasn’t there when housing demand rebounded, contributing to an affordability crisis.

Sinkley also wishes the ROAD Act had gone further, especially when it came to addressing construction defects litigation, which he said continues to block new condo development in Colorado.

Nor does the legislation directly try to lower mortgage rates, which he said remain the primary obstacle for prospective buyers.

“I caution consumers not to think this will change prices and mortgage rates immediately,” said Ryan Bennett, home loan regional director in Denver with BOK Financial Corp. “It will be a slow process.”

Johnston said he planned to have a pilot for the program available to test the city’s design by fall 2027. If it����ap successful, he will then figure out “what the cost of that system is and what the revenue sources are needed to pay for it,” he told reporters before the speech.

“Some families are spending two-thirds of their income just paying for rent and paying for childcare before they ever buy groceries, before they ever pay for school supplies or a family trip or even a birthday party,” Johnston said. “That burden, left unchecked, has made some cities impossible places to raise a family — a fate we won’t allow Denver to repeat.”

(.)

The mayor’s plans include a six-month listening tour followed by the convening of a task force that will develop the program and take on three jobs: “to cut the red tape so passionate educators can open and run a quality childcare business without drowning in paperwork … to build a pipeline of well-trained, well-paid caregivers who can support this system and, third, to chart a path to make care affordable and accessible for every Denver family within the next five years.”

Johnston plans to seek another term in Denver’s municipal election next spring, and a growing list of opponents has filed for the race. He stood on stage Tuesday with City Councilwoman Shontel Lewis, who announced her bid for mayor last week.

His new plan echoes similar calls for universal childcare from other Democratic politicians, including Melat Kiros, who defeated U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette late last month in the Democratic primary to represent Denver in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District. Johnston called out Kiros along with several elected officials who were in attendance Tuesday.

Johnston said his speech and his plan for universal childcare had been in the works for months before Kiros’ victory.

“This is part of a long-term strategy to focus on the biggest needs in the city,” he said.

Johnston delivered the evening speech in the National Western Center’s new Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Livestock Center in the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood.

Johnston also laid out plans for the “Old Mile High” site where the Denver Broncos’ stadium currently sits. If the team follows through on its plans to move to Burnham Yard in 2031, that 85-acre parcel will return to the city. Johnston said the city plans to encourage housing construction on that site by allowing developers to build there without having to pay for the land.

“In the next year we will start a community process unlike anything Denver has done in our adult lifetime to meet this opportunity. Neighbors will get to dream together about what to build, what to connect and how to knit back together communities that spent generations disconnected. This can mean thousands of new units of housing, new public spaces, all directly connected to Federal Boulevard and downtown,” he said.

That will be part of a plan to develop 20,000 units of housing around seven recent or future developments, located in a swath of the city he’s calling the “Mile High Line.” The group consists of Park Hill Park, the National Western Center, the 16th Street mall, Ball Arena, Santa Fe Yards, Burnham Yard and Old Mile High.

Johnston said the new housing at those sites will be near existing light rail stations and will be linked by bike and pedestrian paths “that allow you to live there, if you choose, without needing a car,” he said.

For four years, the property next to his house on York Street in Denver’s City Park neighborhood had devolved into a nightmare. Squatters set up camp in the abandoned 3,300-square-foot apartment building, he said. There was rampant drug use and frequent police presence. Last spring, a fire erupted on the back porch, sending plumes of smoke into Francisco’s residence and threatening to ignite other houses on the block.

“It’s been 24/7 stress having to live here,” Francisco said.

So when John Crays, a local investor, approached Francisco last year, he was immediately intrigued. Under Denver city ordinance, a neighborhood landowner is afforded what is known as a against the owner of a neglected or derelict property.

But these systems are difficult for the average homeowner to navigate. So Crays proposed an alternative: Francisco could assign his right of action to the investor, who knows the ins and outs of the city and court system. Ultimately, a judge appointed a caretaker to take possession of the property, and, eventually, the house will be sold.

“It was a leap of faith, but I was desperate,” Francisco said. “John has been a huge help.”

Crays has been making the same house calls all around the city, convincing discontented neighbors to let him take their problems off their hands. With the help of a housing attorney, Crays has begun to tackle Denver’s through civil court actions designed to pry troubled properties from their absentee owners.

The city seems happy to let him do his thing. Denver officials say they’re reluctant to take people’s property away and have a high constitutional bar to clear if they choose to do so. Plus, the city attorney’s office, which prosecutes such cases, has limited bandwidth to tackle this problem.

Denver has only moved for a court-appointed caretaker for problem properties four times since the start of 2025 — and city officials acknowledged that two of them were in response to Crays filing his own lawsuits.

“Folks are struggling and having to deal with a nightmare every single day,” Crays said. “There’s finally an answer that won’t take years or decades.”

Denver needs a method for dealing with problematic properties, said Zach Neumann, co-founder and CEO at the , a nonprofit organization that helps people facing eviction and foreclosure.

The question, he said, is whether that should be in the hands of private investors or whether a community ownership model could lead to more equitable outcomes.

“The tools being used here are some of the most coercive legal tools available, so they’re ripe for abuse,” Neumann said.

Genesis of a plan

Crays first took an interest in neglected properties 15 years ago after seeing one in his Baker neighborhood.

Unhoused individuals had set up camp in the backyard, while rodents and raccoons turned the house into their own.

Crays learned that Denver keeps a , which it updates quarterly. The July document lists 310 properties across Denver’s 11 City Council districts.

For a property to be declared a it generally must be an unoccupied building that city inspectors have identified as unsafe, a nuisance, habitually in violation of city codes, or at least one year behind in property taxes.

The city can issue fines if the property owner doesn’t submit a remedial plan or doesn’t comply with registration requirements. And yet, the same properties continue to remain on the city’s list year after year.

Crays figured he’d show up to a hearing for the property, at which he assumed the city would take action. He also approached the house’s owner, gauging whether he wanted to sell. That owner, he said, expressed no interest in fixing up the property or putting it up for sale.

Fifteen years later, the house at 119 Ellsworth Ave. remains on the city’s list.

“That was the genesis of finding a more effective method,” Crays said.

Early last year, Crays started reaching out to neighbors of the neglected properties on the city’s list. He found that “nothing was happening at the pace that would make much of a difference,” he said.

The city’s lien process simply wasn’t moving the needle, Crays said. Whether it’s $999 or $35,000, he said, if a property owner doesn’t care about liens, another won’t change their behavior.

“Cities in general are a little hamstrung,” he said. “They can’t be as effective of a tool as a private business owner.”

allows the city, an affected neighboring landowner or any other person who has suffered damages due to the condition of a property to bring legal action against an owner who refuses to fix up their building.

These parties can request an injunction ordering the owner to follow court directives; ask for the appointment of a receiver to take possession of the property to complete all work needed to make the place habitable; or petition the court to demolish the property.

Crucially, neighbors can also sign over their rights to a private party, such as Crays.

‘A little bit of hope’

Susan Bingler bought her first home in 2019 in Denver’s Chaffee Park neighborhood.

About three years ago, the house next door became abandoned. Bingler watched as people set up encampments on the property, openly used and sold drugs, and once set a truck on fire. People living there have kicked in her fence and threatened her safety, she said. Bingler began carrying pepper spray every time she took her dog out.

One day in November, she looked at her Ring camera and saw someone outside the house. As she readied to call the police again, she stopped. This person didn’t look like the normal crew hanging around the property.

That’s when she met Crays, who explained his plan for Denver’s neglected buildings. Bingler immediately bought in.

“I told him I’ve been working with the city for seven years and I’m sick of being afraid to live in my own home,” she said. “Someone finally showing up gives me a little bit of hope that I can one day feel comfortable in my own backyard.”

Bingler signed a document, assigning her rights as a neighbor to Crays.

The investor, under this arrangement, takes on all responsibility and legal fees associated with the lawsuit and doesn’t charge the neighbors anything for the service. Crays, though, does stand to benefit financially if a court awards damages. He also has the opportunity to bid on the properties if they go up for auction.

On Nov. 17, a limited liability company associated with Crays filed a lawsuit in Denver District Court, alleging that the building at 4801 Shoshone St. was a “nuisance property” full of vagrants and criminals. The property owner, Julie Wiley, hasn’t been seen for a year and may actually be dead, the complaint states.

Wiley could not be reached for comment.

Thus began the winding legal process, one in which the property owner did not participate.

In June, a judge granted a default judgment against the owner for $250,000. Weeks later, the same judge directed the Denver Sheriff Department to enforce the judgment through the sale of the property.

Crays, through his LLC, will receive the money from the eventual sale since he’s the named plaintiff in the lawsuit.

The investor and his attorney, Christopher Conant, have been following this same playbook around the city.

Crays said he didn’t know how many neglected properties he’d targeted. Court records show the pair has filed lawsuits in at least eight cases since the start of last year under various LLCs. In four cases, Crays said a judge has either appointed a receiver or the house in question has been sold at auction.

One of these homes he purchased himself, a 1,600-square-foot, two-bedroom house in Curtis Park. Denver property records show the house has been and is being . Crays, through one of his LLCs, paid $50,000 for it at auction.

To supplement the legal action, Conant has been filing records requests with the city’s , seeking details of enforcement actions taken by the city against properties on the neglected and derelict building list.

Nine times out of 10, Crays said, the absentee property owners inherited the home but don’t live there. Many can’t be located or don’t have an interest in engaging.

Nearly all the property owners The Post attempted to contact for this story did not have working numbers or did not return messages seeking comment. Some were dead.

In one case, the listed owner on a property in Washington Park West said he didn’t even know he owned the home until the reporter contacted him.

Earl Broderson, the sole listed owner for 749 S. Lincoln St., said he was part of an investment group some 20 years ago that flipped Denver properties. He said his partners defrauded him and that he didn’t have many records. Broderson said he had no idea Crays had filed suit against him over the derelict house.

“It’s not in my nature to neglect things,” he said. “I feel sad for the neighbors. I’m gonna have to apologize to some people.”

Some owners, though, are around — and fighting back.

Flavia Montecinos owns a million-dollar home along Denver’s East Seventh Avenue that has been coined the “Poop House” after neighbors flung bags of excrement onto the property to protest its derelict conditions.

Crays and Conant filed suit against Montecinos in October, using the same rights afforded to them by neighbors, as they sought to get a receiver appointed or require the owner to demolish the house.

Montecinos did not respond to messages from The Post, but told BusinessDen last year that the property was under a remedial plan with the city and that she was about to get a permit to resume work on the house. A city spokesperson confirmed the remedial plan was approved.

In November, Montecinos countersued Crays over what she said were harassing calls from neighbors and derogatory signs on the property.

“The plaintiff is an opportunist and has purchased claims belonging to ‘neighborhood owners,’” she wrote in her Nov. 4 countersuit, “and seeks to delay and impair the construction.”

Another homeowner in Arapahoe County sued Crays last year, alleging the investor did not disclose issues with the property before he sold it to them in 2022. Crays also did not obtain construction permits for work conducted on the house, the lawsuit alleged.

A jury in May awarded the couple $72,500, finding Crays liable for breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation and false representation. Crays is appealing the case. His lawyer, in a statement, noted the jury awarded only $2,500 for the breach-of-contract claim, “a result that reflects the jury’s rejection of the vast majority of the allegations in the case.”

Crays told The Post that he hired a general contractor for the work and that those individuals never obtained the correct permits.

“I hired the wrong contractor, but I didn’t do anything dishonest,” Crays said.

Limited bandwidth from the city

The city appears content to let the private investors run point on neglected properties.

The , since the start of last year, has filed or joined motions for receivers — the court-appointed caretakers — four times: two were in response to Crays filing suit against neglected and derelict properties; one was led by a neighbor who hired their own attorney; and the last was a joint effort with the city’s .

The Community Planning and Development Department has a committee that considers these properties, which the city calls “the worst of the worst.”

“The bar is so high for us,” said James Hicks, the city’s neglected and derelict properties administrator. “It’s not something we take lightly.”

He acknowledged that the city attorney’s office has “limited bandwidth” to tackle these cases.

Crays knows the city only moves for a receiver as a “last resort.” But for him, “it’s the thing I’m shooting for in some cases.”

Courtney Ronner, a city spokesperson, said the department understands neglected properties are an area of concern for residents. She pointed to the recent creation of a new inspector position that focuses solely on these types of properties, as well as dozens of hearings designed to spur owners into action.

Meanwhile, the Community Planning and Development Department worked with the City Council to develop more stringent enforcement mechanisms that will soon allow the city to issue higher fines to neglectful owners, along with stricter requirements and improved procedures.

“That said, all situations are different and there are many reasons why a property may fall into disrepair,” Ronner said. “Some properties become neglected because the owners have passed away or fallen on hard times. The city must balance the impact on the surrounding neighbors with the rights of property owners who are owed due process.”

Neumann, the foreclosure and eviction defense attorney, said he wonders whether the current approach — letting private investors collect judgments and capitalize on foreclosures — is the best way for a city to deal with blight.

The system, he said, is built on default judgments, which occur when a court rules in favor of a plaintiff because the defendant failed to respond to a lawsuit or missed a court date.

“That process can proceed against a party who may not know what’s going on or doesn’t have the resources to fight it,” Neumann said. “That can introduce risk for consumers.”

A recent example in Denver points to another option.

In 2017, the city pushed for a receiver and auction of a neglected property in Denver’s Cole neighborhood that was owned by former Colorado legislator and Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights author Douglas Bruce.

At auction, a private foundation partner of , a nonprofit organization that operates affordable housing complexes, bought the land for $4.63 million and converted it into . The organization also sold a parcel of the property at a steep discount to Habitat for Humanity, which built 17 townhomes to sell.

But the city could only get the property to auction; it couldn’t determine who bought the land and for how much. Mile High Ministries raised major capital to make it happen and certainly did not get a discount, said Jeff Johnsen, the organization’s executive director and CEO.

Detroit also serves as a good example of what can be done with a community ownership model.

Officials in 2008 established the , a public-benefit corporation dedicated to transforming vacant and abandoned properties into “inclusive community assets.” The city manages nearly 60,000 properties and has sold tens of thousands of homes and vacant lots since its inception for prices well below typical market value.

Neumann acknowledged that dealing with blight remains a complicated question with no easy answers.

“In the absence of a well-funded community ownership approach, the use of these types of legal tools is probably better than nothing,” he said.

Crays, for his part, said he was just operating as an investor at the beginning of all this. Now he’s seen that his work goes beyond the dollars and cents.

“I didn’t see how much impact I was gonna make on neighborhoods struggling with these properties,” he said. “After dealing with so many of these families — the situations they have to live with — I have a lot of sympathy for these people.”

But when Clayton Homes announced in December that it was shutting down the state’s largest modular manufacturing plant, located in Adams County, it raised a critical question.

If Clayton, the nation’s leading manufactured homebuilder, couldn’t justify operating in Colorado, what are the survival odds for the 18 newer and much smaller home-construction innovators the state has backed in recent years?

Before the housing crash in the late 2000s, Colorado was home to a half-dozen modular factories. Clayton’s Heibar facility, formerly known as Precision Building Systems, part of Oakwood Homes, was the last of that generation to finally call it quits.

Enter , which is trying to fill the void, to the point of acquiring equipment and hiring some of the workers let go last year by Clayton’s Heibar Installation plant.

Vederra’s 140,000-square-foot facility in Aurora is two-thirds the size of the shuttered Heibar plant. And the company says it has co-developed a proprietary model to create factory-built homes and apartments at a significantly lower cost.

Founder Nathan Peterson, who has spent 25 years in the modular industry, pointed with pride during a factory tour on the equipment deals he managed to land, some at pennies on the dollar.

He is leasing space rather than buying land for the factory. He has avoided investing heavily in robotics, in part because he lacks the money, but also because it would create a burdensome overhead when work orders slow.

Silicon Valley tried to address the inefficiencies in the home construction industry through a startup called Katerra, which deployed advanced robotics and software throughout.

Katerra was a private equity darling until it burned through $2.4 billion in six years before abruptly liquidating in June 2021. Its sudden failure left two Denver apartment buildings and a hotel in limbo, although all three were eventually completed.

Equity investors and unsecured creditors weren’t so fortunate.

Vederra Modular, by contrast, represents a bootstrap venture, one that is relying heavily on state support but also finding a way to lower costs.

In 2024, the collateral support via the Innovative Housing Incentive Program, through Colorado’s economic development office, and $3.5 million in working capital from the state’s Proposition 123 Affordable Housing Financing Fund, administered by the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority.

Peterson acknowledged his factory wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without state funds, which have some strings attached — the creation of 150 local jobs and 316 affordable housing units a year.

“Vederra is one of a growing number of Colorado companies developing innovative new off-site construction methods such as modular, panelization, 3D printing, foundation and framing kits, and composite wood technologies,” said Hilary Cooper, director of Innovative Funding for Housing Programs at the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.

Rather than betting big on one technology or a couple of companies, the state has spread its wagers across 18 housing innovators in 12 counties. The target they have set is the construction of 7,000 housing units a year, which would represent a sizeable chunk of the 35,000 or so building permits pulled in the state in 2024.

Over time, the hope is that innovation can shrink the state’s shortfall, which the State Demography Office estimated last fall at 106,000 homes and apartments.

“By helping these companies launch and grow, we can help more Coloradans live close to their jobs, and in communities they love,” Cooper said.

Modular construction involves building components, such as walls or trusses, or entire structures, inside a factory, rather than on the home site. Assembly lines can run day and night, protected from the elements, making for a more efficient and attractive work environment. Quality control is easier to maintain, and waste is much lower.

Completed components ship to the home site, where they are assembled or put on a foundation. Modular construction promises lower costs, higher quality and much faster completion time. But factories need a steady flow of orders to support their overhead, and that went away after orders dried up during the housing crash in the late 2000s.

Workforce housing in the mountains

With the Front Range currently facing a glut of apartments, Vederra Modular has zeroed in on the affordable housing market in resort communities where the shortfall remains acute.

The approach of building energy-efficient modules in a factory, while the land is prepared, aligns better with the short building season faced in mountain communities, said Paul Capps, president of Summit Housing Group in Missoula, Mont.

Summit Housing and the town of Granby are currently developing a 66-unit project called the Summit at Granby Apartments for people earning between 30% and 60% of the area median income in Grand County. That would likely put rents in the range of $600 to $1,200 a month for a two-bedroom unit based on the AMI.

They are also developing a related 75-unit workforce housing development within Nuche Village, which targets workers making 80% to 120% of the area’s median income.

Summit expects to close on its construction loans within the next 30 days, at which point it will give Vederra Modular the go-ahead to start assembling modules.

“We hope that the boxes can be built and shipped up there by November of this year before it gets too cold,” Capps said.

Time is money when it comes to construction. Each month of delay will cost Summit $100,000 in interest payments on its construction loans, he said.

Having apartments completed and occupied in one year rather than in two or three years could save Summit Housing between $1.2 million and $2.4 million in financing costs, he estimates.

Modules currently take about three weeks to build, Peterson said, and the company is working on a real-time labor management software called Vederra OS to keep the assembly line flowing more smoothly by reducing the idle time of workers.

Savings in the void

One of the key innovations developed by Peterson, in partnership with Dean Dalvit, owner of EVstudio in Denver, is a construction method known as Alt-Mod.

Traditional modular designs contain complete walls and floors ready to be shipped to the construction site. That allows boxes, which can contain a full room or a room and parts of other rooms, to be more easily stacked on top of or next to each other.

However, the convenience in assembly comes with a trade-off: overbuilt walls and floors and wasted construction materials.

Vederra’s method, which will be tested in Granby, only builds enough of the walls and floors to interlock with other modules.

“We intentionally leave a void space,” Peterson said. “That cuts the number of boxes needed in half.”

The approach involves more finishing work onsite, but it saves between 15% to 20% over traditional modular methods, according to EVstudio.

For The Summit at Granby, a traditional modular approach would require 93 boxes with a component cost estimated at  $13.7 million. The Alt-Mod method reduces the box count to 47 and brings the component costs to $9.4 million.

The system, however, does require more on-site labor to complete the unfinished spaces. Those costs rise to $1.93 million versus $581,000.

All in, the Summit at Granby carries a price tag of $18.7 million versus $22.6 million using more traditional modular methods, a savings of 17%.

Rodger Hara, an affordable housing industry consultant, said better economies of scale mean more affordable homes can be built.

Vederra and EVstudio appear to have made a promising breakthrough in that regard, he added.

Capps said lower costs can make the difference between an affordable project winning tax credits and getting completed or staying on the drawing board. And that can make the difference between workers in a community having a place to lay their heads near where jobs are or having to make long commutes on icy roads.

“The Alt-Mod program is a cost-saver and a game-changer in the affordable housing space,” he said.

Emergency housing on the go

Another innovation that Vederra is working on involves moveable “pop-up” factories that can be brought into disaster areas or into remote areas without homebuilders.

Vederra Onsite is developing a system to quickly set up 60,000-square-foot factories capable of producing 350 homes a year in areas where the housing stock has been destroyed or isn’t keeping up.

The idea is to put factories close to where homes are needed, whether it is a hurricane-scoured Gulf Coast community or a fire-scorched mountain town. As an added benefit, the factories could provide 50 to 75 jobs to residents who might otherwise be unemployed after a natural disaster.

Factories could also be set up in isolated places with acute housing shortages, like North Dakota’s Williston Basin experienced during the shale oil boom from 2006 to 2014.

Peterson said the Colorado Department of Local Affairs is funding a pilot plant. He is working to get the Federal Emergency Management Agency interested.

“We are trying to take one to Hawaii,” he said.

A catastrophic wildfire in August 2023 killed 102 residents of Lahaina in Maui and destroyed about 1,900 homes and apartments. Nearly three years later, only 231 replacement homes have been completed, with building permits issued for another 549, according to a .

In January, Colorado extended a $1 million line of credit through Proposition 123 and a $1.8 million loan through the Innovative Housing Incentive Program for a pilot project to assemble the first pop-up factory.

After the homes are built, the factories can then be packed up and moved to the next crisis zone as needed, Peterson said.