Rent control is more a ghost than a specter in Colorado political discussions, but the state is reaching a condition where any workable idea deserves a conversation.

Social and economic realities are barreling toward us. Americans are aging fast and not well. The Downer Department here at Insights has told you before that older people haven’t saved nearly enough for retirement, especially housing, especially when prices on everything are through the roof.

Voters are coming to the table in other states, as well as in the Colorado statehouse and among progressive political circles in Denver.

At the end of October in Minnesota, Minneapolis voters gave the city council the authority to set rent prices, while St. Paul voters approved a 3% annual limit. Santa Ana, California, just restored controls, and even the Republican governor of Massachusetts says he’s willing to listen to reasonable proposals.

The politics on this is far from settled. California, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Oregon, with Washington, D.C., have localities with rent control rules. On the other hand, more than 30 states have cities that explicitly bar rent control.

Last May, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed House Bill 1117 into law, giving local governments more tools to up the inventory and hold down the rent, without calling it rent control. 

AARP Colorado survey shows concern for retirement savings

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The numbers drive the politics.

In Colorado, Georgia, Mississippi and West Virginia have the pitiful acclaim of more than 30% of the senior population telling pollsters they’re worried about making their next rent payment.

At least 1 in 5 seniors in 13 states reported that they were struggling to pay rent.

A one-bedroom apartment in metro Denver averages $1,475 compared to $1,565, the average monthly Social Security check in Colorado.

Terry Simone, the president of the Colorado Apartment Association, points out that a shade under 500,000 people relocated to Denver after 2009, and the market responded with about 124,000 new apartments.

The median home price has soared from $220,000 12 years ago to roughly $450k now.

In Denver, the No Eviction Without Representation Denver campaign hopes to have a proposal before voters next year, while inventory-starved property managers said the cap would only add legal and administrative cost to an already over-appropriated system.

Nobody has a good solution, but everybody knows the problem: the rent is too damn night.

In my long experience, any time the market can supply a solution, it’s the best solution. I think that’s true here.

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Franklin Park is a good place to start.

Normally, I don’t follow the real estate news, other than to check my own property values. Landf develops in the metro region the way a goat eats grass.

Rick Sapkin, a developer I sort of know through Colorado Concern and the managing partner at Edgemark Communities, acquired a 10-story apartment building, the Residences at Franklin Park, on East Colfax in Denver.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is covering all or some of the rent of the 92 apartments. Edgemark is honoring the three years left on its federal housing contract, plus extending it another 20.

What that means is stable rent on a government formula for two decades to come.

With an aging population – ya know, the silver tsunami – affordable housing for seniors is potentially the next rising tide, Rick said.

“We saw the obvious need,” he said. “We were looking at developing some, but to buy it and to run it differently, to run it better.”

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Folks have and will continue to speak up in the marketplace, but the government and private sectors have to listen, Rick said.

“That’s really the only way we’re gonna be able to address this in Colorado, at the local level,” he said. “And the state is obviously very interested in doing the things they can do right. But, you know, the state doesn’t control zoning, the state doesn’t control the city council.”

Profit drives the housing market just as it drives the economy, but there’s a lot of different needs to add up the numbers on affordability, said Rick, who’s selling more than apartments.

Shopping, recreation and self-storage are in the mix, and owners can do more to be better partners, he said. 

“We looked at the improvements we could make first,” he said. “Sometimes, they didn’t have a laundry room, so the people would have to get on a bus and travel into town and do their laundry and come back. They had space on the property for the laundry, but the guys who owned it didn’t want to invest the money to put the laundry facilities in. That’s a solution.”

The idea is to treat tenants like neighbors and partners, not wards.

“You get operating efficiency by treating your residents as customers. You have less maintenance, you have less repairs,” Rick said. “You find out about problems sooner because people actually will say, ‘I have a small leak in my kitchen,’ and it doesn’t become a full-blown issue where now you’re replacing pipe and everything. You create a better line of communication.”

A better community to live in isn’t rent control.

“The bottom line is everyone has to have a home,” Rick said. “Everyone wants a residence that is theirs.”