A solid growth plan needs to be at the top of the agenda for Colorado’s elected officials, says gubernatorial candidate Cary Kennedy. Kennedy, a Democrat, today unveiled her growth plan, which takes a head-on approach to addresses affordable housing concerns.

“I’ve watched Colorado’s population double since I was a kid,” Kennedy tells Colorado Politics. “And now, forecasters are telling us it’s going to double again by the time my teenagers are my age.”

“I think we all are concerned we see our open spaces disappearing,” she said.While serving as chief financial officer for Denver, Kennedy was integral in starting the city’s first affordable housing initiative, a plan she would make statewide if elected.

The Metro Mortgage Assistance Plus program provides down payment assistance for low to moderate income families buying a home, and has since its inception put more than 1,400 families buy homes.

Another program she helped launch, the Housing to Health Initiative, put some 200 homeless residents into homes using a finance model that leverages private capital and public savings generated from successful outcomes by participants in the program.

“People can’t afford to live in the communities where they grew up, and can’t afford to live in the communities where they work, so that’s added to our traffic congestion problem,” she said.

“We’re really proud of our neighborhoods. They’re rich with diversity … inclusive communities are important important in socio-economic status and important in racial diversity, we don’t want anyone to feel forced out.”

Responding to the backlash at ink! – a coffee shop in the city’s Five Points neighborhood that posted a sign saying, “Happily gentrifying since 2014 – Kennedy says ink! made a mistake.”There are members of that community who grew up there and their parents grew up there, generations have lived there … they’re being priced out of their neighborhoods,” she said. “I think we all have to be sensitive, communities are being torn apart, it can add to the inequities we already see.”

Protesters gathered at the shop Saturday, broke a window and spray painted “White Coffee” across the building. (ink! has since apologized publicly, saying recognizes “that we had a blind spot to other legitimate interpretations.”)

Kennedy’s plan to make metro areas in Colorado affordable also includes helping people get in affordable renting units and deferring increasing property tax bills for people struggling to keep up with the rapid increase. A similar program is already in place for seniors and disabled residents.

Managing growth responsibly and building a more sustainable future is the only option, she said, since stopping growth is impossible. She points to the possibility of Amazon building its second headquarters here, and recognizes many residents aren’t exactly rolling out the welcome mat. Kennedy says she doesn’t think growth pressures can be stopped, so its incumbent upon the state to manage growth responsibly.

“We can’t stop growth,” she said. “What we can do is better prepare for that growth.”

“I remember the 1976 Olympics,” she said. “Colorado is the only place in the world that has turned down a successful olympic bid. I think we thought, ‘If we build it, they will come’. Looking back, we didn’t build it and they came anyway.”

Kennedy’s growth plan for Colorado includes the following initiatives:

Ensuring People Can Live Where They Work

In communities across Colorado, from metro areas to rural resort towns, the cost of housing is skyrocketing, leaving limited options to address our state’s massive housing shortage. Today, one in four Coloradans spends more than 50 percent of their income on housing and 40 percent of renters in our state spend more than a third of their income on rent. Because of these barriers, along with wage and income stagnation, many Coloradans are not participating in the great economic progress our state is experiencing. People can’t afford to live where they work or stay in the communities where they grew up. Part of expanding prosperity to include everyone is ensuring that Coloradans everywhere can live where they work.

Create a Statewide Affordable Housing Fund

Coloradans across the income spectrum are feeling the squeeze of the cost of housing. As governor, I will establish a dedicated affordable housing fund that will support local communities as they find innovative and effective solutions for their unique affordable housing challenges. This new fund will increase the supply of affordable housing across the state. And, like the Building Excellent Schools Today program, this fund will recognize that Colorado’s local communities know what is best for their area and support localized solutions to each community’s unique needs.

A Colorado Affordable Housing Fund will:

Invest in a variety of affordable housing opportunities by financing the construction, maintenance, and preservation of the affordable housing supply in communities across the state.Invest in mixed income housing opportunities that maintain diverse and inclusive communities across the state.Preserve affordable property so that it can be used for affordable development, not just more out-of-reach development.Support programs that provide rental/down payment assistance, address homelessness, increase homeownership, and help Coloradans attain affordable housing.

Typically, an affordable housing developer can find 60-80 percent of the funds needed to construct new housing from private and local/federal government sources. A statewide Colorado fund would provide funding to fill the remaining gap to make sure projects get underway. In 2015, more than 100,000 people moved into Colorado while builders added only 25,000 homes to the housing stock. Right now, hardly any state dollars are dedicated to housing.

This new, innovative fund will be housed within the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority and financed by a $50 million seed loan from the Colorado Unclaimed Property Fund. According to 2016 estimates, the Unclaimed Property fund is nearly 70 percent, or $82.7 million, over its required reserves. The state of Colorado will always pay all unclaimed property claims, no matter what. In order to sustain the fund, I will pursue legislation that will generate additional revenue from a small increase in real estate transaction fees, similar to that proposed in House Bill 1309 (“Documentary Fee to Fund Affordable Housing”).

Help Colorado Families Own Homes

Throughout my career, I have utilized innovative public financing to increase home ownership for Coloradans. During my time as Deputy Mayor and CFO of Denver, I started the Metro Mortgage Assistance Plus program which provides down payment assistance for low to moderate income families who are attempting to buy a home. Along with the Mortgage Credit Certificate Program, the program has helped more than 1,400 Denver and metro area families buy a home. Over $300 million in mortgages has been generated through these programs.

I also helped launch the Housing to Health Initiative, which has housed nearly 200 hundred formerly, chronically homeless people in Denver. This program uses Pay for Success financing, which is an innovative public financing model that leverages private capital and public savings generated from successful outcomes by participants in the program. In the Denver Housing to Health Initiative, wraparound services are funded through the savings the city realizes from the participants not needing as many emergency services like detox and emergency room visits and from participants spending fewer nights in jail. This program recognizes the importance of housing and helping people avoid the criminal justice system.

As governor, I will bring this expertise in public finance and history of finding innovative solutions to helping more families buy and stay in their homes. We can expand assistance for down payments and closing costs. And we can expand programs that defer increased property tax payments to more people. This program is available now for seniors and active military personnel who are on a fixed income. For residents in areas where property values are increasing rapidly, the increased tax burden can prevent long-time residents from being able to stay in their home. Expanding this program to more people will help more people stay in their homes.

Protect Colorado’s Tenants

Colorado lags behind the rest of the country in protecting the rights of renters. Many renters have very few rights when applying for housing, and we see even fewer protections when renters are evicted. Following an eviction, low-income families spend thousands of dollars on application fees only to be turned down because they have housing vouchers. This further drives families into poverty. Colorado can do a few things to help end this cycle for families, and to make sure our state’s economic progress is inclusive.

Increase Landlord Transparency: All too often, honest working families in Colorado are denied housing. Before accepting an Application Fee, a landlord should provide:Tenant’s rights and landlord responsibilities for maintaining a safe and habitable home;Whether or not they make application decisions based on criminal background checks and how far into an applicant’s past those background checks extend;If they make application decisions based on if the tenant has previous history of eviction.End Income Discrimination in Housing: It should be illegal for landlords to deny applications based on the source of income. People who qualify for vouchers should not be denied solely for that reason.Reform Eviction Policy: Colorado should increase notice requirements for rent increases and notice to vacate from 7 days to at least 21 days for all tenants. Colorado is one of only three states that requires 7 days or less for notices.Expand Legal Aide for Evicted Tenants: Colorado should raise the eviction filing fee that landlords pay to evict families and use those funds for legal assistance for tenants being evicted. This will both discourage landlords from using evictions and help protect the rights of Coloradans at risk of being evicted. Evictions are a leading cause of family homelessness, can often trigger job loss and declines in physical and mental health, drive up local poverty and crime rates, and are more frequent in communities of color and rapidly gentrifying areas.

Making sure hard working Coloradans can find and keep housing without facing exorbitant costs will help our economic progress reach everyone.

Increase Opportunities for Skills Training in the Construction Trades

One reason for our diminishing supply of affordable housing is a lack of skilled workers to build new houses. Experts predict that this will only get worse. The shortage is nationwide but particularly distressing in Colorado, a state with the lowest unemployment rate in the country, 2.3 percent, coupled with one of the highest growth rates. Colorado State University’s department of construction management estimates that by 2025 there will be 96,000 vacancies in the construction trades in Colorado, a 38 percent increase from today. By working with labor unions, community colleges, and construction companies to increase the number of available training and apprenticeship programs for Coloradans interested in the building trades we can take a step toward solving this problem.