Housing Access and Availability

Overview

Current State

*RMP uses the McKinney-Vento definition of homelessness when discussing the housing situations of youth because it provides a more holistic picture of housing instability.

“I think a lot of people are suffering [because of COVID-19]. I also think a lot of people are going to need to seek out homeless shelters. There is going to be a lot of poverty. It’s sad to say, but I think it’s going to happen. I think food access will be okay – there are a lot of resources in the community you can count on. But, housing – no. You can’t count on it. It’s not guaranteed.” “

Source: Source: Adams County Resident, Adams County Community Needs Assessment

Click the button below to learn more about the data contributing to housing insecurity throughout our region.

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Challenges

There is a myriad of challenges contributing to the housing crisis facing our region and our country. Those listed below are a few that are most impacting our region, and those that the work of the Partnership is working to address:

1. The supply of housing available at a price people can afford has not kept up with demand.

  • The north metro region will need to develop at least 10,851 NEW housing units over the next five years if we want to stabilize the housing to population ratio
  • The supply of units available at a price people can afford is predicted to decline as costs continue to rise
2. Owned and rental housing is cost prohibitive for many workers and learners in the north metro region.

  • The cost to buy a home in Adams County has increased by 60% since 2017
  • The median rent cost for renters in Adams County is $1,581 per month, which is $100 more than median rent across the state
  • Someone making minimum wage would need to work 84 hours per week to afford to rent a one-bedroom apartment
3. The lack of available housing at a price point people can afford is negatively impacting our region’s learners and workers.

  • Over half of renters, and a quarter of owners are spending more than a third of their monthly income on housing (a.k.a. cost-burdened)
  • The number of evictions in this region has almost doubled in the last year alone
  • Over 5,100 households are behind on rent, accounting for over $9.5 million cumulatively in rent debt
4. There is not a regional understanding of or a shared approach to addressing the availability and accessibility of income-aligned housing.

  • Because housing policy is localized, efforts to improve are often localized

Strategies

The Rocky Mountain Partnership serves as a space for organizations, businesses, and community members from across the region to work together to develop, scale, and build on innovative strategies that will solve some of the greatest adaptive challenges facing our communities.

Local governments across the region have their own priorities and work underway related to increasing home ownership, lowering rent costs, minimizing evictions, preventing homelessness and serving the homeless population, and more. The work happening through RMP is intended leverage efforts already underway to support strategies that:

  1. Build a knowledge base to understand the housing landscape across the RMP region, including what needs and gaps exist and what effective practices or innovative solutions could address those.
  2. Grow the region’s stock of income-aligned housing
  3. Increase inclusive pathways to homeownership
  4. Improve how services reach community members who most need them
  5. Combat stigma and educate the community about the impact of housing

In order to do this, partners have worked with the RMP Team to develop and implement projects focused on filling critical gaps and not duplicating work that entities across the state currently have underway.

Note: These strategies are being updated in real time based on improvements being made to RMP’s Five Year Strategic Blueprint. Contact RMP Senior Director of Strategic Supports Ashley Edinger (AshleyEdinger@RMPBackbone.org) for more information.

How This Work Came About

The COVID-19 pandemic was a wake up call for our community that a more regional, multi-generational, comprehensive approach was needed to solve the most adaptive challenges facing those who live, work, and go to school here. In 2020, RMP convened housing partners from across the state to identify opportunities for working together to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.

As the region moved into pandemic recovery, leaders within the Partnership saw a sustained opportunity to continue to utilize the Partnership’s framework to support housing projects that would increase access and availability of attainable housing. In 2022, the Partnership conducted two assessments to support understanding the housing landscape in our region:

  1. Policy Impact Assessment: Intended to identify how local, state, and national housing policy and legislation is impacting our region
  2. Housing and Education Readiness Assessment: Intended to illuminate where there are opportunities for housing and education partners to strengthen how they are working together

Findings and recommendations from these assessments led to the development of the projects above. Additional projects will be developed and/or scaled as capacity is grown.

The Regional Housing Roundtable

In order to support a more regional approach to improving housing access and availability, local government and housing authority staff leaders and decision makers formed a Regional Housing Roundtable in 2022 to identify opportunities for stronger collaboration. When Proposition 123 passed in November 2022, the Roundtable identified their first area for collective work- developing a shared definition of the process and timeline for what 90-day fast tracking under Proposition 123 could look like for localities in the RMP Region (Project #3)

Click the button below to learn more about the work and participants of the Regional Housing Roundtable.

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Learn more about this effort, including our data and targets, our action underway in 2022 and beyond, and who’s involved, by clicking on the links in the left sidebar.

Matt Horn, RMP Director of Collaborative Action, serves as the Project Manager for this effort. Contact Matt at MattHorn@RMPBackbone.org with additional questions or to learn more.