Services, support key pieces of housing affordability puzzle 

DENVER — For many vulnerable Coloradans, housing affordability is but a single piece of a puzzle of circumstances that require an interconnected approach from support-service providers.

Supportive housing, rather than merely affordable housing, may help the state begin to address its seemingly intractable homelessness crisis, participants said Tuesday at a policy roundtable moderated by Gov. Jared Polis’ senior policy adviser for housing Megan Yonke and organized by affordable-housing provider Archway Housing & Services Inc.

“Things that were undoable years before are now doable because people are thinking about housing more comprehensively,” said Jonathan Cappelli, executive director of Neighborhood Development Collaborative, a nonprofit coalition of about 20 Front Range organizations such as Boulder Housing Partners and the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.

“Once (affordable housing) is built, a box isn’t checked … you have to provide services for residents,” he said.

For example, TGTHR, a Boulder-based nonprofit founded in 1966 that seeks to combat youth homelessness, offers a variety of programs that address basic needs, provide safe housing and connect young people with the supportive services needed to move from homelessness to stability. Over the years, the programs offered have grown to include an overnight shelter and daytime drop-in center, which provide access to resources including health care, employment and education services, counseling, as well as food, clothing, showers, and Wi-Fi.

Housing affordability isn’t just an economic issue, TGTHR CEO Annie Bacci said at Tuesday’s event in Denver. “We’ve been saying that housing is health care for a long time.”

That said, there is, of course, an economic aspect to the issue of housing accessibility in Colorado. 

“Access to affordable homeownership is our best defense to income inequality,” Elevation Community Land Trust CEO Stefka Fanchi said. 

Elevation CLT, which in 2020 bought 13 townhomes in Boulder’s Gunbarrel neighborhood for conversion into permanently affordable housing and in early 2024 broke ground on the BirdWhistle Townhomes affordable-townhome community in Fort Collins, develops and acquires housing units across Colorado that sold to buyers who otherwise might be unable to achieve homeownership.

When housing prices are unaffordable and homeownership is out of reach for many workers, the business ecosystem suffers, said Luke Teater, an economist and housing policy consultant with Thrive Economics LLC. 

Companies struggle to fill open jobs because would-be employees from other parts of the country can’t afford to relocate and would-be entrepreneurs opt not to roll the dice on new business ventures because they’re too focused on the fulfillment of basic needs such as housing stability. The result, Teater said, is a “less dynamic” business climate.