Robin's New Take on Affordability through Land Use, House 1000 and Sabbatical
Introducing a new Substack newsletter from Robin Kniech.
Politicians love to celebrate their first 100 days in office. But I don’t have an office anymore, just a desk at the entryway to my bathroom. And you lose track of time on sabbatical, just ask the people I’ve stood up the last few months because I was lost on a ladder or stopped looking at the time or my calendar.
Just over 200 days have passed since I departed City Council and became a “free agent” (my son thinks that sounds better than saying you’re without a j.o.b.). The break has been lovely, but now it’s time to re-engage our community in some dialogue. Turns out they don’t issue you a light switch on the way out the door, and I still care passionately about the challenges we face and our resiliency in facing them.
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I’m honored to have been selected as a Bell Policy Center Economic Mobility Fellow. I’ll contribute reflections and case studies to Colorado’s debate on addressing our housing crisis through land-use and zoning reforms.
The housing crisis touches everyone: low- and moderate-income households, families of all incomes through their emerging young adult kids or aging parents, and employers unable to find or retain workers. My work will be focused primarily through the lens of equity: Who is most housing cost-burdened today, what type and price of housing is most needed, and who is most at risk of being left behind if proposals to spur growth don’t produce that housing as intended?
ICYMI in the Denver Post, check out my piece: Denver’s mayor didn’t actually “house” 1,000, but he still could.
Please read the piece first, but for those of you seeking to go deeper: your new City Council raised questions about the proportion of the current Denver budget being spent on non-congregate shelter and the implications for long-term housing efforts in the 2024 budget debate, to no media coverage at all.
According to Denver Housing Stability (HOST)’s 2024 Budget Presentation, 74% of the $52 million Homeless Resolution Fund (HRF) is going to shelter and services with 22% going to housing assistance and development. This trend began during the Hancock administration, when a bond and ARPA funds were used to cover much of the city’s capital investments into affordable housing and hotel purchases (um yes, we bought five before Mayor Johnston was elected and several more were in the works, but kudos to his team for leveraging them well and continuing the work, per my piece). But to the extent the HRF’s capacity is further diminished through long-term commitments to annual operations and services at new shelters and villages or other House 1000 non-housing activities like outreach, it may not have the capacity to fulfill the promise made to voters to fund at least 1,800 new homes to resolve homelessness in part from these sales tax dollars.
Denver’s separate $33.7 million Affordable Housing Fund does build housing for those exiting homelessness too, but it also invests across the income spectrum needing affordable assistance, both rental and for-sale housing. It was to be the source of subsidy to help pay for the “bricks and sticks” of Denver’s supportive housing pipeline along with federal and state tax credit and gap financing sources, which housing development partners leverage at least $10 to Denver’s $1 to build housing to resolve homelessness.
Denver’s former HOST team used the HRF to innovate one of the nation’s only local housing vouchers to help support Denver’s current pipeline of 2,500 future supportive housing apartments, and intended to use it to fund connected supportive services as well. The HRF was needed because only up to 10% of the Affordable Housing Fund can be used for services in order to preserve the majority of the fund for housing. And because our robust pipeline outstrips both the vouchers and services available through Denver Housing Authority, federal and state sources. The first project, built by Warren Village, was awarded local vouchers in 2023. There should be several per year to be on track for our 10 year goal.
For those wanting to learn more about Supportive Housing:
My former City Council office produced a Neighborhood Engagement Guide to help communities better understand it when it is proposed in your community.
Comments on X and the Post brought out advocates for sobriety-first or only models. While my own family has been impacted by substance misuse and I deeply understand the emotional desire to force people to get well, I’ll remain focused on bringing facts to our dialogue:
Only a portion of those experiencing homelessness suffer from substance misuse disorders, though it is more visible among those experiencing street homelessness and needing supportive housing due to chronic homelessness. Job loss, not being able to afford housing and eviction all consistently rank higher as causes of homelessness than substance misuse.
There’s no question we need more paths into treatment on demand for those who are ready. Those who aren’t are likely to refuse sobriety models, leaving them and the community impacted by street homelessness at status quo. But when people are met where they are at with housing and services that build trust over time in a voluntary model, research is clear they reduce substance use and use the services. Those living in supportive housing use more psychiatric services and fewer emergency room and detox visits than those in a control group. Which, of course, is more cost effective than jail and emergency care too.
Grew my household! + 1 teenager from the Netherlands + 1 beloved mother-in-law = family of five!
Momming to smart, hard-working and funny East and South High Schoolers with a lot of rizz (see my glamorous life in the stinky feet road trip photo below)
Ice climbing in Ouray
Paddle boarding (Wellington, Brainard, Chatfield, Cherry Creek…)
Flying a United 787 flight simulator
Hikes with friends
Karaoke and arcade dates with my wife
Sleeping well and cheering my successors on while I rest!
Sabbatical Highlights
Thank you for continuing your excellent work on housing issues here in Denver and Congratulations on the fellowship!
Thank you for the hard work and continued efforts to address homelessness with housing first evidence based policies!