In the 1990s, Colorado's rental costs increased by nearly 90 percent, while wages rose only 56 percent during the same period. That's the background for the growing debate in Colorado and across the United States over the scarcity of affordable housing. For many years, we've heard the voice of social progressives talking about the moral dimension of housing.
Progressives view the lack of affordable housing as the root of a variety of social ills.
When low-income populations face little or no choices in housing, then poverty tends to congregate in isolated pockets often marked by poor schools, decaying infrastructure and higher crime. By increasing the supply of affordable housing in geographically diverse regions, we can offer people with lower incomes a better quality of life and reduce the inequality of opportunity between rich and poor families. Using the language of social welfare, however, advocates of affordable housing have struggled to gain traction among policymakers. They also note the impact of the housing shortage on urban and rural sprawl, traffic congestion, community values, and environmental integrity. The resulting problems tend to erode the region's quality of life and, in turn, its advantages in economic development.