Housing for ALL — The Missing Middle Plan

HBA: Housing & Building Association of Colorado Springs

Category: Government Affairs

Location: Colorado Springs, Colo.

Size: Local Association: 201-600 members

Year: 2022

The Colorado Springs Housing & Building Association led the charge in creating the Community Housing Affordability Taskforce (CHAT), consisting of community leaders to outline the housing affordability problem specifically for entry-level housing and to identify barriers as well as opportunities that government staff and elected officials should consider. The project represented a precedent-setting level of collaboration and cooperation between the home-building industry, local government, nonprofits, and other stakeholders. CHAT’s recommendations have been utilized to craft legislation at the state level and to inform policy changes at the county and city levels.

CHAT consists of community leaders representing the HBA, the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Corporation, the Pikes Peak Association of REALTORS, the Apartment Association of Southern Colorado, the Colorado Springs Downtown Partnership, and the Affordable Housing Collaborative. The taskforce met for more than 30 meetings over the past year, and through the partnership with the Affordable Housing Collaborative, more than 100 subcommittee meetings were held. CHAT’s outreach included six housing forums with more than 625 attendees, sponsored polling, research reports and studies, participation in the Chamber’s Washington, D.C. fly-in housing track, and commissioning a housing affordability plan for the missing middle-income earners. Through this Housing for ALL-Missing Middle Report, the CHAT focused on ways to change the narrative and start a dialog around several components that could be implemented to assist with developing and constructing more housing stock.