The Renters Survey: Read the Report Now
THE GIVING SEASON IS HERE
ECHO needs you! In the last year alone, ECHO has played a meaningful role in informing, educating, and training hundreds of folks and decision-makers in Eastern Boulder County on affordable housing needs, projects, and how to be more effective as advocates and leaders. Given that 1 in every 6 persons in Boulder County pays more than 50% of their income on housing, instead of the nationally recommended 33%, the need to support our community is critical. We are expanding and have considerably increased our outreach to the Spanish-speaking community with the addition of a bilingual community engagement coordinator.
What if we all came together to support ECHO’s vision of people having access to affordable, quality housing in the communities in which they work, study, and play? We can!
Starting on Giving Tuesday (Nov 29) and through Colorado Gives Day (Dec 6) we are reaching for our highest goal yet. Would you consider supporting ECHO toward its $8,000 fundraising goal? Any amount helps!
Your support is essential and very much appreciated to help us qualify for Colorado Gives Day Matching Funds.
WE DID IT!
Thanks to all the folks who supported Proposition 123. This citizen-initiated ballot measure will raise about $300 million a year for the next 17 years for affordable and attainable housing. The upcoming challenge will be to create rules for how to distribute the funds. Rest assured your ECHO team will be following that process and keep folks informed as to what is being considered and opportunities for weighing in. We plan to work with local governments in the region to ensure they access the funds.
ERIE UPDATES
Town Board Votes to Purchase Land for Affordable Housing
Congratulations to the town of Erie for voting to purchase its first ever land for affordable housing. There are many steps to go, but Erie took its first steps on November 15 by voting 5 – 1, Andrew Sawusch opposing, to purchase land to create for-sale affordable housing in Old-town. Erie residents who want to help ensure this housing gets built should send us an email and we will keep you apprised of upcoming opportunities to engage. echobouldercounty@gmail.com
Erie Studies Larger Scope of Affordable Housing Tools
The Erie Town Board held a study session on Tuesday, November 29 to discuss strategic affordable housing options . If you missed the meeting, you can view it here: https://erie.granicus.com/player/clip/2917.
If you would like to support affordable housing in Erie, it would be of great benefit if you could write the town board and encourage them to adopt strong affordable housing options. We believe the town will require some percentage of new development be set aside as affordable and will also create some incentives to help developers do this. The email address for the town board is bot@erieco.gov.
Here are some things you can say:
“Because much of Erie is already built, if we are going to achieve our goal of 12% affordable housing by 2035, we need to be aggressive.”
“As a resident of Erie, I support a multi-pronged approach which includes both developers and the town coming together to create inclusionary housing, as well as the town of Erie creating incentives.”
“We encourage the town to look at multiple options, including zoning changes for more middle housing, working with RTD to create transit-oriented development, and planning for more condos and entry-level housing so that young people and workers can live here.”
“Please do what you can to make sure that we achieve our goal, and it is not just an on-paper goal.”
“Please consider both for-sale and rental housing so people can meet their immediate shelter needs and are able to build wealth through home ownership.”
Here are some reasons why affordable housing is so important:
Home prices have doubled in the last 10 years, and one-third of Coloradans worry about losing a home because they can’t afford the rent or mortgage.
If rents continue their five-year trends, by 2032 a renter would need an annual income of more than $106,000 to afford median rent in Colorado.
In Boulder County, 58% of renters spend more than 30% of their income on rent. In the City of Boulder, 24% of homeowners spend more than 30% of their income on their mortgage.
In Northern Colorado as a whole, only 13% of housing is affordable to a teacher.
We can and should do our share in Erie to make a difference in affordable housing for ALL in our community. Please write to the town board using these talking points: bot@erieco.gov.
LOUISVILLE UPDATES
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)
The City of Louisville recently held a study session to examine Accessory Dwelling Units as part of a solution to the lack of housing. Samples of ADUs include Mother-law-units and “granny flats.” CALL TO ACTION: Please contact the Council and ask them to find the resources to implement an AFFORDABLE Accessory Dwelling Unit Program. If we get more housing through ADUs, there are ways to keep them affordable. Council@Louisvilleco.gov.
North End Expansion
The City will be reviewing the proposed North End expansion on January 3, and deciding whether to allow the developer to pay cash-in-lieu or to require them to build affordable housing. Since land is becoming scarcer and scarcer, and construction costs are high, if the city gets the cash, there is no guarantee it will become affordable housing in the near future. Thus, we at ECHO recommend they require the developer to include affordable housing as part of the development. CALL TO ACTION: If you want to see affordable housing built on this site, please let Council know. Louisville has a long way to go to reach it’s affordable housing goal. Too many developers have found a way to get out of providing affordable housing. Council@Louisvilleco.gov.
LONGMONT UPDATES
The City Council recently amended its Inclusionary Housing Ordinance (IHO) to better account for the total cost of housing. The City staff undertook a listening session and heard that the existing formula does not accurately account for the total cost of a housing payment for low- and moderate-income households and could be putting vulnerable populations at risk of financial and housing instability. The staff also heard that the existing prices were cost- prohibitive for developers and builders; builders could not make the numbers work when considering the complex financial stack needed to obtain equity investment and lending in order to construct. The result of that work is a proposed formula methodology that attempts to balance the needs of families living in affordable housing with the feasibility of building affordable and attainable product so that the program provides attractive incentivizes to actually produce these units, all while building in flexibility to weather a volatile market. The City made the following changes and we commend them for these changes.
City of Longmont maximum sales prices for affordable home program will be updated annually by modifying the following variables in the housing market:
HUD income limits – update annually,
Mortgage Interest – update annually using the prior 15 months of average monthly rates,
Property tax – update annually with revised assessment rate and mil levy,
Property insurance – update every 3 years with industry data,
HOA fees – update every 3 years with survey data of Longmont HOAs,
Private mortgage insurance – update every 3 years with industry data,
Median actual sales price difference between detached and attached home sales – update annually using an average of the prior 12 months of monthly median sales prices.
ECHO Report on Renters Experiences After the Fire Available Now
In spending time with renters after the Marshall Fire, ECHO has discovered that there are many ways the law is not sufficient to protect renters from unscrupulous behavior. We summarized the conversations we had with renters, and our recommendations and have created a report which we hope illustrates the problems with the law. The attorney we worked with who provided legal services to 70 families after the fire also prepared a report. We are sharing these reports with the media and elected officials in the hopes that legislators and elected leaders will take up the cause of reform in our landlord/tenant law that could help if a similar disaster is to strike somewhere else (which we know is inevitable.) Read the report now.
