Denver City & County

Making housing affordable is a “Yes, and” problem which requires many changes. Yes, we need to make it possible to build more housing with less red tape, and Yes, we need to dedicate funding to support affordable housing.

Housing affordability is a spectrum—everyone deserves a house, but some people need a little bit of support. As Dr. Jenny Schuetz, author of Fixer-Upper and Senior Fellow at Brookings Metro, identified

“Everywhere in the United States, the poorest 20% of households can’t afford market-rate housing without some extra subsidy. There’s just a bunch of people who earn too little to pay for the operating costs of housing. It’s a national problem and a low-income problem. Peoples’ wages have not remotely kept up with the cost of living.”

Proposition 123 supports those 20% who need help. That keeps people sheltered and not displaced from their community. It’s a well-crafted bill targeting an important need. You can read more at Yes on 123.

Endorsed by YIMBY Denver and YIMBY Action.

Ensuring that residential tenants in Denver facing eviction will be guaranteed legal representation is part and parcel of what we mean when we say “Yes In My Backyard.” Yes to more housing; yes to legal protections for our neighbors so that they are not unfairly evicted; yes to legalizing all housing in all of Denver. Along those values, YIMBY Denver endorses the No Eviction Without Representation (NEWR) ballot initiative.

Endorsed by YIMBY Denver and YIMBY Action.

A functional city has a transportation network that stitches everyone together. Our sidewalk network has long been treated as a second-class citizen in Denver. This happens despite the fact that everyone is, at the end of the day, a pedestrian of some sort. It’s time to respect our city, and all of our neighbors, by respecting our sidewalks.

The funding mechanism for Denver Deserves Sidewalks incorporates lessons from the Denver Auditor’s assessment of the city’s failed attempt to bring our sidewalks up to standard. A predictable fee is simply better governance than the alternative we’ve already tried. Ballot Initiative 307 is a cost-effective way to make Denver a more functional city. We encourage you to vote yes.

Endorsed by YIMBY Denver and YIMBY Action.