Many of Denver’s community workers – teachers, patrol officers, janitors, licensed nurses and full-time retail associates – cannot afford to either rent or buy a home, according to a study released last week by the National Housing Conference.

Commissioned by Housing Colorado, and a supplement to the NHC’s Paycheck to Paycheck Report, the study profiled the five professions in Boulder, Colorado Springs, Denver, Fort Collins, Greeley and Pueblo. It was designed to showcase how Colorado compared to other housing markets analyzed in the Paycheck to Paycheck Report.

According to the study, only school teachers and police officers among the five professions can afford to pay Denver’s rental rates, and none of those working in those professions can afford to buy a home in the city.

The study results closely followed approval of a $156 million, 10-year affordable housing program in the City and County of Denver. It calls for establishing permanent funds to support city affordable housing programs: an affordable housing linkage fee charged to new construction and part of the city’s existing property tax revenue. The program aims to produce, preserve and rehabilitate 6,000 affordable housing units.

City Councilman Albus Brooks, one of two council members who championed the affordable housing ordinance on the council, said the program should help the workers in the study, since it is directed at workers who earn $65,000 a year and less, along with those with salaries between $60,000 to $80,000 a year.

“We’re really trying to get a handle on the need for worker housing,” Brooks said. “We’re setting up the largest affordable housing program in the state, and I think it’s a significant step in the right direction to make sure the people who work in the city can find housing.”

According to the ordinance establishing the program, qualified households earning 80 percent or less of the area median income or 100 percent of the area median income could take part, depending on the types of housing.

Brooks said the city’s office of economic development will oversee the program, along with other housing-related services and programs.

“Need is pretty overwhelming”

Sara Reynolds, executive director of Housing Colorado, said her organization did not take an official stance on Denver’s affordable housing program before it was approved by City Council on Sept. 19.

“But our general position has always been that the need is pretty overwhelming, so that means it will take federal, state and local resources to help people get into homes,” Reynolds said.

How to fund affordable housing programs is up to local communities, she added. For example, Reynolds said lodging and property taxes has helped develop worker housing in some Colorado mountain communities. In Eagle and Summit counties, voters this fall will consider sales tax increases for affordable housing.

“It can be extremely complex to make affordable housing happen, and you need different funding tools to fill any gaps,” Reynolds said. “So some level of local funds is key to filling those gaps.”

Study details fragile housing situation for many

In a research note, Brian Stromberg, the National Housing Conference’s housing research specialist, wrote that home prices in Denver are 48 percent more expensive than the national median. Denver’s rental rates are also higher than the national median of $1,056 a month. The study found many hardworking Coloradans can only afford a home by a very slim margin.

“One unexpected expense like a car repair or a medical bill can mean cutbacks on essentials like food, heat, and child care,” Stromberg noted. “Or can even result in losing their home. Tens of thousands of people are one event away from a housing crisis.”

While housing affordability may not seem to be at a crisis point in Colorado compared to notoriously high-cost places such as California or New York, Stromberg wrote, “the cost of housing in metro areas around the state is at the edge of affordability for essential service workers like janitors, nurses, and police officers, while the high-cost markets of Boulder and Denver are challenging for workers across the earnings spectrum.”

Stromberg also noted a lack of affordable housing has impacts that reverberate throughout a community, as workers are forced to move to more affordable areas, spend more time on longer commutes, or spend less on essential household costs like health care and food.

“This can make qualified workers difficult to come by, impacting the ability of local businesses to survive and presenting longer term economic development consequences when industries feel they are priced out of the Colorado market,” he wrote.