(The Center Square) – Housing costs make Colorado one of the nation’s most expensive states.
This is according to a recent report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, which listed Colorado as the sixth least affordable state in the country.
The report focused on low-income housing and affordable homes, finding that 79% of extremely low-income renters in Colorado have a “severe cost burden” when it comes to finding housing.
Extremely low-income renter households are defined as those with incomes at or below the poverty level or 30% of their area median income, whichever is greater. In Denver, that is approximately $27,400 per year.
“While Coloradans of nearly all income levels are experiencing difficulties with access to affordable housing, the circumstances continue to be most dire for those in the bottom 30% of area median income,” said Cathy Alderman, chief communications and public policy officer for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.
Colorado moved in its ranking from the last time the report was conducted, from eighth to sixth least affordable.
The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless argues that, while the shortage is “dire” nationwide, Colorado’s situation is uniquely bad.
Nationally, the report found that there are 35 “affordable and available rental homes” for every 100 extremely low-income renter households. In Colorado, there are just 26.
That means that Colorado has a shortage of 134,281 rentals, with many of those (98,983) in the Denver area.
The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless published a report detailing Colorado’s “affordable housing crisis,” arguing that the state needs to make “strategic investments” to address the issue.
This includes a call for more state funding, funding that it said should be “directly tied to increasing the stock of affordable housing for those who have historically suffered the most significant barriers to housing access.”
“The private market, without subsidy, is unable to provide an adequate supply of housing affordable to the lowest-income renters,” the coalition argued. “Subsidies are needed to produce new affordable housing, preserve existing affordable housing, or subsidize the difference between what the lowest-income renters can afford to pay and market rents.”
Others like the Common Sense Institute of Colorado argue that the state’s “piecemeal” approach to housing and building regulations is one of the main issues, calling for “broader reform” to fix the shortage.
