Colorado Affordable Housing Toolkit for Local Officials

Though local governments across Colorado are well aware of the housing availability and affordability challenges in their communities, many struggle to proactively address such issues due to limited resources. In response to this capacity gap, the Colorado General Assembly passed House Bill 21-1271 in 2021 to assist local governments in responding to local housing challenges.

The legislation created an affordable housing toolkit and local officials guide program to promote innovative solutions to the development of affordable housing across the state. The Colorado Affordable Housing Toolkit and associated programs sought to improve the ability of local officials to understand and respond to the unique sets of housing challenges their communities face. Community Builders assisted with the development of the Toolkit in partnership with Enterprise Community Partners.

Over the last three years Community Builders and its partners delivered 20 half-day in-person trainings to communities across the state. Collectively, these trainings included local officials or public agency staff from approximately 65 jurisdictions. Each of these trainings was customized to cover topics that were relevant and at the right level of detail for the jurisdictions attending to move local conversations forward.

Community Builders also led in-depth, multi-month technical assistance to six Colorado communities or organizations, including La Plata County Regional Housing Alliance, Mesa County Valley School District 51, the Town of Granby, Town of Eagle, City of Montrose, and Pitkin County.

The online component of the Colorado Affordable Housing Toolkit will continue to serve as an important tool for local governments across the state for years to come, offering training videos about housing development, affordability, and how local officials can respond to local challenges.

Through the technical assistance portion of the program, Community Builders  provided a variety of deliverables:

• La Plata County Regional Housing Alliance strategic plan
• Surveyed Mesa County Valley School District’s 2,800 employees and explored affordable housing programs based on their needs
• Town of Granby zoning code analysis and land use reform recommendations
• A set of recommendations for Pitkin County to improve housing availability for its 370 employees
• Community engagement training for the City of Montrose to assist with promoting denser housing options to address the City’s housing affordability challenges
• A developer attraction and retention strategy, and a list of prospective developers for the Town of Eagle