Denver, CO
Denver City Council considers $6 million grant for permanent affordable homeownership
DENVER — High housing prices are making homeownership a distant dream for more Coloradans. But on Monday, Denver City Council will debate a $6,220,000 grant proposal that would go toward acquiring at least 62 homes over the next three years to be available for affordable homes.
The most recent Cato Institute 2022 Housing Affordability National Survey shows 55% of current homeowners said they would not be able to afford their home at current housing prices, and 69% said they worry their children or grandchildren won’t be able to afford a home.
Carmen Mayta was someone who thought she’d never be able to become a homeowner.
“I was feeling that hopeless. No, I won’t qualify for anything. I don’t have 10% or 20% to put down for a property. I don’t have savings,” she said.
That was before she applied to work with Elevation Community Land Trust, a local non-profit that uses the community land trust model to provide permanently affordable homeownership opportunities to hundreds of people across Colorado.
“We don’t make money on our deals, we are a non-profit. But what we really like is helping to build inter-generational wealth, which so many folks have been shut out of recently,” said Tiana Patterson, VP of Social Impact and Wealth Equity at ECLT.
ECLT builds housing or purchases houses, fixes them up, then sells them at a price affordable to lower-income families. The homeowner owns the home, but the land stays in trust.
A recent ECLT property in Aurora just closed for $299,000 while homes of a similar size for sale right now in the same neighborhood range between $325,000-$430,000.
Denver City Council considers $6 million grant for permanent affordable homeownership
“The trade-off is you do a shared appreciation. You don’t take all of the appreciation out of the home, but you do pass it on to someone else who can also access permanent affordability,” explained Patterson.
If a homeowner sells the home, the price needs to be what they paid for it, plus only a quarter of what it appreciated for over the years. That keeps the property affordable for the next person.
“It’s a model that maybe isn’t for everyone, but for those who’ve been waiting for a way to get their first home, or get into, you know, just out of a renting situation. This could be a really good option,” said Patterson.
ECLT puts private capital into the projects in addition to grant funding and subsidies from partners and local governments.
The majority of the $6 million ECLT grant would come from the American Rescue Plan Act and state and local fiscal recovery funds and $700,000 from Impact Investment Funds.
“I think we’ve proven to the city that we are a partner who gets things done, who provides this homeownership model, and we’ve been working with them since about 2018,” said Patterson of the upcoming decision.
The Follow Up
What do you want Denver7 to follow up on? Is there a story, topic or issue you want us to revisit? Let us know with the contact form below.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — A Denver Health ambulance with a patient onboard was involved in a crash in Englewood Tuesday afternoon.
The crash happened around 4:30 p.m. at Logan St and the Hampden Bypass. According to Denver Health, the ambulance was transporting a patient to Swedish Medical Center when the crash occurred.
According to Denver Health, three additional ambulances were dispatched to the scene. One took the initial patient to Swedish Medical Center. The other two ambulances were for new patients who were involved in the crash.
Denver Health could not share how many additional patients there were or if the initial patient was injured in the crash.
Denver7
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
This is a developing story.
The Follow Up
What do you want Denver7 to follow up on? Is there a story, topic or issue you want us to revisit? Let us know with the contact form below.
DENVER — Police in Denver arrested a suspect in connection with the fatal shooting of a man outside the Denver Rescue Mission Monday night.
Officers arrested Julian Huggins, 40, at the homeless shelter in the 4600 block of E. 48th Avenue shortly after arriving on scene around 8 p.m.
The male victim, whose name has not been released, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the police.
Witnesses told police that the Huggins and the victim were involved in a verbal altercation before shots rang out.
Huggins is being held on suspicion of first-degree murder.
The Follow Up
What do you want Denver7 to follow up on? Is there a story, topic or issue you want us to revisit? Let us know with the contact form below.
Denver, CO
Rent-free housing: Denver real estate firm donates apartments to 10 early-career teachers
Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.
Ten early-career Denver classroom teachers will get free rent for a year in a new upscale apartment building in the northwest part of the city — a novel, if incremental, approach to the problem of rising housing costs making it difficult for teachers to live close to where they work.
Real estate investment firm Grand Peaks, whose founders attended Denver Public Schools, are donating 10 apartments in the 533-unit Skyline at Highlands development in the Jefferson Park neighborhood. The teachers will be able to live there rent-free from August through next July.
Sara Hazel, the president and CEO of the Denver Public Schools Foundation, said the foundation chose the 10 teachers in a random drawing from among about 215 who applied. Only classroom teachers with zero to three years of experience were eligible.
“I got to have my Oprah moment sending emails to these 10 winners and sharing the wonderful news,” Hazel said. “The response we’ve gotten — the quotes are, ‘This is life changing for my family.’ ‘You have no idea how much this means to me.’”
Marc Swerdlow, president of Grand Peaks, said the company’s founders, the Simpson family, wanted to do something for Denver teachers after reading news about pay disparities and the struggle to find affordable housing. The average apartment rent in the gentrifying city was $1,875 a month in the first quarter of this year, the Denver Post reported.
“This property is not an affordable-housing project, but something we could do to provide affordable housing to teachers seemed so easy, so natural,” Swerdlow said.
The hope is that increasing access to affordable housing will incentivize early-career teachers to stay in Denver and in the teaching profession, Hazel said.
“Affordable housing is one of the barriers our Denver teachers are facing — and Denver teachers living in the Denver community is good for Denver and good for our students,” she said. “We hope other companies look at this and are like, ‘Wow, how do we replicate this?’”
Five of the apartments are studios that would otherwise rent for between $1,725 and $1,900 a month. The other five are one-bedrooms that would rent for between $2,300 and $2,450 a month. The salary for first-year Denver teachers this past year was $54,141.
DPS leaders have floated the idea of providing teacher housing several times in recent years, but no projects have come to fruition. In 2018, the district scrapped the idea of converting a then-empty elementary school into rental apartments for educators after neighbors pushed back. The district leased the building, the former Rosedale Elementary, to the Archdiocese of Denver instead. It now houses Saint John Paul the Great Catholic High School.
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
Denver 7+ Colorado News Latest Headlines | July 2, 7am
The Follow Up
What do you want Denver7 to follow up on? Is there a story, topic or issue you want us to revisit? Let us know with the contact form below.
Seattle Mariners’ Offensive Woes Continue as it Gets Smothered by Baltimore Orioles’ Pitching
Angry sea lion charges at beachgoers on popular California beach: ‘Get out of the water’
Ranking young Milwaukee Bucks players based on potential after NBA Draft
Chattahoochee Riverkeeper threatens to sue Atlanta over sewage dumping in river
Minneapolis musician-turned-writer Laurie Lindeen of Zuzu's Petals dies at 62
See it: Tesla crashes into Columbus convention center at 70 mph
Colorado Rockies game no. 116 thread: Zac Gallen vs José Ureña
Fox News Politics: Georgia the whole day through
Death of missing Oregon girl found in stream ruled homicide
At least 2 dead as tornadoes hit Alabama, damage homes across Southeast
Cash Dash: Trump tops Biden in fundraising battle the past three months
Hungary's Orban pushes for ceasefire deal during Kyiv visit
Robert Towne, Oscar-winning writer of 'Chinatown,' dies at 89
Dems 'coming to terms' that Biden 'not in control' following disastrous debate: former WH doc
Judge delays Trump’s sentencing in hush money case until September
-
News1 week agoA Florida family is suing NASA after a piece of space debris crashed through their home
-
Politics1 week agoBiden official says past social media posts don’t reflect ‘current views,’ vows to support admin ‘agenda’
-
World1 week agoIsrael accepts bilateral meeting with EU, but with conditions
-
World1 week agoNetanyahu says war will continue even if ceasefire deal agreed with Hamas
-
News1 week agoWoman accused of trying to drown Muslim child in Texas in possible hate crime
-
World1 week agoOver 10,000 Poles participate in Pride parade in Warsaw
-
Movie Reviews1 week agoMovie Review: “Casablanca” – A Timeless Masterpiece –
-
Politics1 week agoSupreme Court to review Tennessee ban of puberty blockers, transgender surgery for minors