Working to address Colorado’s Housing Crisis
Housing Equity for Colorado is a new collaboration that links diverse community voices with the organizations working to provide housing to help address our state’s housing affordability and availability crisis.
As community leaders, we understand the impact of Colorado’s housing crisis on our state’s workforce, their families and the economy. The lack of access to affordable housing in Colorado:
Impacts our ability to recruit, retain and hire qualified workers, grow our businesses, and build healthy communities.
Limits the ability of firefighters, teachers, police officers, frontline healthcare workers and other essential members of our communities to live in the communities where they work.
Jeopardizes the future of our kids and grandkids who likely will not be able to afford to live where they grew up.
Click here to watch Governor Polis’ State of the State comments on construction-defect reform and condos.
“To unlock housing supply, we need to allow more housing Coloradans want. This includes condos, which often start at a lower price point, providing more affordable homeownership, and with it, the foundation for wealth building, and building a nest egg for financial security.”
—Colorado Governor Polis, 2025 State of the State
Colorado ranks last in housing competitiveness nationwide.
A recent study by Pew Research Center found that it takes a salary of $95,000 per year just to be in the lower middle class in the Denver metro area in a market where starter homes are extinct. That makes living the American Dream very difficult for far too many Coloradans and most often those in marginalized communities.
The ability to buy a home and build equity matter. This is one of the most important pathways to the middle class and wealth generation, which has become out of reach for many of the people who live and work here in Colorado. We need a community where young people invest and raise their families. But it requires good policy and good leadership. As communities around the country wrestle with affordable housing, we know there are no easy answers. But there are answers, and Colorado can become a leader nationwide.
Colorado Housing Crisis:
By the Numbers
225,000
Number of housing units needed right now just to meet Colorado’s housing demand.
(CHFA/DMCC 2024 report)9,324
Decline in Colorado population in 2022, primarily due to the high cost of housing. This was the first drop in more than 30 years. (American Community Survey 2023, RMPBS Nov. 13, 2023)
Colorado Housing Crisis:
By the Numbers
22.4 percent
Percent of permits for condo developments as a percentage of new homes in 2006-07 in the metro Denver area. (Peak Economics Research & Consulting)
15 to 20 percent
Percentage of condo developments as part of a healthy and balanced housing market that prioritizes affordability. Colorado’s current market is below 5% due to current construction-defects law.
Less than 5 percent
Average of annual permits for condos in metro Denver since the 2008 construction-defects law. (Peak Economics Research & Consulting)
Colorado must do better.
And we must take action.
Housing Equity for Colorado will be working on sensible policies that foster more affordable housing across Colorado. We will work with elected leaders at the state and local levels to identify ways to facilitate policy changes that will provide more housing. We believe this will require a multi-year, multi-pronged and nonpartisan strategy to support legislation at the state Capitol to address productive housing policies with the goal of stabilizing costs.
A critical first step is to begin building more condos and townhomes by seeking needed construction-litigation reform that has stymied these housing options for decades. Colorado’s 2008 construction-defects law is blocking builders from accessing insurance and capital for affordable condo developments.
Today, condominiums account for less than 5 percent of building permits statewide. In a healthy housing market that should be 15 to 20 percent. Condo development promotes gentle density, increasing housing supply for first-time buyers.
We will do better. And Housing Equity
for Colorado is working to make that change.
There’s much more to be done. As we work to address Colorado’s lack of condos, we will also focus on policies that impact land use, density, workforce availability and other factors that promote a healthy—and affordable—housing market. This effort will require the help and collaboration of many community partners and stakeholders and will hopefully help break down even more barriers to providing much-needed housing.
Housing Equity for Colorado’s Goals:
Identify and research policy solutions that will lead to more housing options in communities across Colorado to address the affordability and availability of housing.
Become a trusted messenger on policies impacting housing to ensure that elected officials and housing stakeholders at the Capitol and in local governments take work together on smart and innovative solutions.
Build a multifaceted coalition of community leaders, businesses, nonprofits, religious organizations, and Coloradans to help spread the message of access to housing and work with legislators to pass pro-housing policies.
Work to educate our broader Colorado community about the importance of providing more housing options—including homes, condos and townhomes—to meet the needs of our state’s workforce and economy.