Affordable Housing Advocates Seek Trust Fund

DENVER-It will be tough sledding in a time when the state is slashing its budget, but a coalition of affordable housing advocates want to create a trust fund to provide affordable housing in Colorado. A $26.5-million investment in affordable housing would create more than 3,200 jobs and significantly stimulate Colorado’s sluggish economy, according to the non-profit Colorado Housing Trust Fund Coalition.

An impact study conducted by Economic & Planning Systems Inc., which was commissioned by CHIFC, outlined the impact of creating a trust.

At least 34 states have housing trust funds.

According to the study, an average of 3,400 rental and for-sale housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income families would be created.

Also, each dollar of equity investment in a trust fund would leverage an additional $10 of public and private investment in affordable housing.

In addition, the construction and real estate industries would experience direct effects of $160 million of economic activity and 1,158 jobs each year, generating total direct, indirect and induced impacts of $290 million and 2,804 jobs annually in construction and real estate alone.

The fund also would help financially strapped rents, freeing up an average of $2,460 per household to spend on goods and services that otherwise would have been spent on housing.

The new economic activity would generate more than $26 million of annual tax revenues, more than $13 million of which would accrue to state and local governments, according to the report.