On July 20, during his inaugural address, Mayor Michael Hancock announced the next bold step in Denver’s commitment to affordable housing — dedicating at least $15 million a year in new funding to preserve and build at least 6,000 additional affordable homes over the next 10 years, and a package of aggressive policies. Council members Robin Kniech and Albus Brooks have been working alongside the mayor to develop this approach, and together they are reaching out to the residents of Denver to engage in a conversation about keeping Denver affordable and accessible.

Attainable housing is foundational to every person’s life. Today, the reality is that skyrocketing rents and home prices threaten to squeeze out low- and moderate-income families and seniors. Affordable housing shortages are impacting cities and states across the nation. Here in Denver, there is no corner of the city untouched by increasing housing costs.

It is incumbent upon all of us to safeguard Denver’s high quality of life by maintaining quality, affordable housing. We cannot afford to lose housing for our teachers, firefighters and nurses any more than we can afford to lose businesses because their workers cannot find decent housing. We hear your concerns. We stand with you. Denver can do more and we are taking action.

Access to affordable housing is key to economic stability. It keeps Denver diverse and inclusive, enhancing our vitality. Affordability is also essential to maintaining a strong workforce and recruiting new businesses. Investing more in affordable housing will pay dividends for families, seniors and workers, as well as for Denver’s overall economy and quality of life.

Denver has already spurred the creation of almost 2,000 new affordable units, helped hundreds of families with down-payment and mortgage assistance, and created a $10 million dollar revolving loan to build housing for our workforce. We’ve also launched innovative financing to help homeless individuals into housing instead of paying for emergency rooms and jail nights, and we updated the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance. To catch up and keep up with the need in our city, the next bold step is to dedicate Denver’s first-ever, annual source of funding to build and preserve a full range of affordable housing.

We’re proposing the exploration of two sources that could be dedicated for this purpose.

First, we need to explore a broad-based and reliable source of revenue that brings our entire community together to be a part of this solution, in the same way we fund other city priorities such as parks and libraries. In 2012, voters authorized the city to keep property tax “mills” that had been assessed and credited back, in order to catch city services back up to where they were before the recession. The city is still crediting several of those mills and will credit more back to taxpayers next year to reduce the tax burden as property values grow. We propose exploring the dedication of up to one of the previously credited mills for affordable housing. Dedicating an existing property tax mill could generate up to $13 million a year, would be stable over time, and would cost the typical homeowner only $25-50 a year.

Second, we should explore charging a modest fee on new development to help mitigate the housing demand those projects stimulate. Called a “housing linkage” or “impact fee,” this approach is a best practice in other cities across the country to help balance growth with housing demand. Development cycles go up and down with the economy, so while an important tool, we believe it’s necessary to pair this fee with the more stable property-tax source to ensure the city can maintain a steady commitment to affordable housing.

From life-saving housing with supportive services for the homeless, to much-needed workforce rental housing, and wealth-building homeownership opportunities, $15 million of dedicated revenue would provide more than five times more homes over 10 years than we could build with the city’s existing resources.

Recognizing that even more is needed, however, we also propose a package of policies ranging from stronger notice and rights for the city to preserve existing affordable housing, approaches that help keep families affording their existing homes, and tax- or fee-relief for developers of affordable housing.

A conversation with stakeholders, civic leaders and the rest of the City Council to flesh out the details of this proposal will begin in September, with updates to and opportunities for input from the broader public in the coming months as well. But the good news is that increased resources could start right away: pending Council approval, the 2016 budget proposes $8 million for preservation and construction of affordable homes, more than doubling previous investments.

Housing is a key foundation of any community, and this is our call to action. It will take all of us working together to grow our impact on housing affordability in Denver and keep our city a place of opportunity for everyone.

Michael Hancock is Denver’s 45th mayor. Robin Kniech is an at-large member of Denver City Council and Albus Brooks represents District 9, including downtown Denver and neighborhoods to the north.