Several candidates for Denver's top post descrbed
The Denver Metro Association of Realtors Thursday brought together seven candidates to discuss issues important to their members.
Mayoral candidates Kelly Brough, Chris Hansen, Debbie Ortega, Mike Johnston, Leslie Herod, Andy Rougeot and Kwame Spearman discussed issues related to housing and public safety to the real estate community at the PPA Event Center on the morning of Feb. 23. Overall, these candidates roughly agreed on the issues Denver is facing but each had their own approach to how to solve it. Ed Sealover, the Colorado Chamber of Commerce vice president of strategic initiatives and the editor of The Sum & Substance, moderated the event.
Answers by candidates have been shortened and edited for clarity.
Question: What is the city government's role in bringing down those [housing] costs and getting more attainable housing to be filled? In what steps, in general, would you take as mayor to achieve that role?
Hansen: Well, we absolutely have to move faster on permitting and getting projects done. You think about the capital stack and some of these complicated projects, and a high-interest rate environment. And if you're delayed 2436 months, and I’ve heard even worse cases, you blow up the project. It's simply not going to work. We have to fix that immediately. I'd like to see if we can further digitize what's going on and get the simple projects out of the queue. I think we're going to need some contractors to come in and help de-bottleneck and I think we're going to need to make sure we've got a specialized unit that's focused on high-priority projects like affordable housing. And finally, enough of the seven, eight, nine iterations with permitting department. Once we get to time number four, it's time to get everybody at the table and figure out how we get the permit done.
Enough. We can't continue to do this and ever expect to catch up on the supply issue.
Ortega: So that is one area [building permits] where we can absolutely make a difference. But I think also with the funding that the city has, that's another area. And as you know, our city just passed [to] expand housing affordability, which I know many of our developers have submitted their applications there in the pipeline going through the process, there are so many submitted that didn't have complete applications, just to get in by the deadline. And I think it's important for us to look at expanding that, for those who are moving through the process.
For those who have done nothing and just submit an application, I think we need to look at that stack differently so that those who are moving forward, we spend the staff time to get those online because many of those projects have affordable housing that we desperately need on the market today.
Johnston: The answer is right down to a couple of things, you don't have sustainable public dollars to be able to support the construction of affordable housing. So you don't create a structure instead where we try to build affordable housing by increasing the rates and other parts of the rental market. We don't have a solid path to give people access to homeownership, which is down payment assistance. And we don't have a city government that is totally aligned to that vision as people that work in every part of the organization who see their fundamental job being customer service, because they are there to serve you in accomplishing the goals the city is trying to get done.
Herod: And so thinking about the fact that we have a historic investment in infrastructure today, and affordability today, and Denver continues not to be able to pull down those funds. It's unacceptable. I live in Park Hill. If I was trying to find my house today in Park Hill, I would not be able to afford to live in the community that I love. We need more diverse housing stock, it does not mean that we need to change the beauty of my neighborhood. But what it does mean is we need more duplexes, more triplexes and more quads. That diversity is what we need in the city. And we need it quickly.
Rougeot: So our city has failed. Our city has failed blue collar workers, young families. first time homebuyers… This is not a new issue. This is an issue that's been a problem the entire term of Mayor Hancock and to have politicians on the stage including some who could have had that impact, and say ‘I'm surprised’ or say ‘here's something else we could do,’’ and having done that in the past is embarrassing.
Spearman: The fact that our housing market has appreciated over the past decade, has created generational wealth for Denverites… The problem is we don't have starter homes. If you look at the condo defect law right now, we've got to solve that. I appreciate everything everyone is saying right now, but sometimes the market can actually solve our issues if we allow the market to operate the way that it should.
Brough: These are huge issues, we should be looking at those in partnership with the private sector, I provide tax incentives to figure out how fast could we transition some of those office buildings to residential, so we can address our needs, and address the vibrancy and critical vibrancy that we have to address the county. And frankly, the liability at our state is an issue. I'll continue to work with you on it. But we spent 12 years when I was at the Chamber trying to solve that and address the liability issues at the state. I'm not hopeful we're gonna get it done anytime soon. But to address it, in the interim, while we worked on it, I will build condos in partnership with the private sector, I'll focus on publicly owned land, so that we can put condos in our communities where our families can own again, where our kids can go to schools that they've never could have accessed. And we get people back into homeownership because that's how we will build wealth.
Question: Do you believe the new rental registration and inspection licensing ordinance is right for Denver? Do we need this program? If so, what kind of changes are needed to bring it into compliance? Would you support an amendment to exempt Mom and Pop landlords with three units or less?
Johnston: So I think the process of registration and licensure, I think people will say they can accommodate, I think the challenge is the inspection department here to require inspectors sometimes [with] a four or five, six-month wait to get access to an inspector… I think for two or three units or less, you should be able to not have to do an inspection, you ought to be able to have certain criteria, and you should meet those criteria, and if you're found to have violated them, sure, then there should be consequences.
Herod: We know that that that has created a great market for inspectors. But what about the landlords? What about everyday people? It's not working. But that's not mean that we should have people living in unsafe conditions, absolutely not. But when I talk to my friends who are middle-income [and] making ends meet by having small units that they are offering for rents, they can no longer do their jobs because they can't get through this process and no one's listening to them. They call and they don't get an answer, or they get pointed towards an ordinance or statute and they don't know how to interpret that makes no sense. And so yes, we've got to listen to people and what was created recently is not working and we've got to fix it.
Rougeot: We need to get rid of this law. I'm embarrassed that we haven't already when we see how it's failed. But it's look, it's like a lot of other city policies that have failed. We were sitting right now with the new compost and trash collection, where we have not been able to get out the trash. We've said hey, we know the state is coming, city has known it's coming, but a failure of the mayor, the failure of the city council didn't do anything other than say here’s a great idea and failed to execute. We deserve a mayor who has experience actually executing.
Spearman: I would repeal the law, but I think what we need to ask ourselves is how did we get here in the first place. We got here in the first place because we do not have people leading our government to understand business. There are so many unintended consequences. I agree that we have good intentions when we're passing these laws… These are one size fits all solutions, that's the problem. If you looked at particular areas of the city, they need different things.
Brough: I think we have to absolutely look at an exemption for the smallest landlords but I also think this, I think we have to back up and ask the question, what are we trying to address? What's the most efficient way to address it?
To me, my guess is what we're trying to address here is that there may be property landlords who are not taking care of their properties. I wonder if you could use resources better on a report-out basis where people can actually report on those landlords, we respond timely, we address the issue and we fix it. And we don't need legislation that, frankly, adds to the cost of rent throughout our city.
Hansen: You know, I don't think this inspection program is suddenly causing a meltdown. I do think the legislation needs adjustment. I do think we need to focus on where the problem is. And this kind of across-the-city solution in a tight timeline is not working very well. But I also think there are problem landlords who are causing unsafe conditions. Having this rollout, I think the timeline, again, can be adjusted, I think the legislation can be adjusted so that we avoid unintended consequences. But the overarching goal, I think, is a reasonable one.
Ortega: So first I want to clarify that the mayor can't repeal, its only city council that would repeal or eliminate that law. I was one of the members of council that did vote for this. We had a lot of input from renters, who were in buildings that were not up to par and I think the real ultimate goal is how do we use city resources to also help those landlords whose properties may not be performing to cover the costs to do the upgrades… So the issue is really how do we make sure that these are all safe homes for everybody, and that any of the property owners who don't have the resource to do the upgrade have access to resources whether it's from the city or the state division to housing to assist them in addressing these issues.
