Denver voters have soundly rejected ballot measure 2O and development on the Park Hill Golf Course. And while we are disappointed by the results, we honor Denver voters’ wishes and applaud those who voted in this election.
As the dust settles on ballot measure 2O — which would’ve allowed us to build as many as 200 new apartment homes for income qualified families and up to 60 new affordable homes as part of a Permanent Supportive Housing community serving our disabled neighbors at the defunct Park Hill Golf Course — we are looking to the future, where we are actively working to create new communities and deliver support services to address the urgent need for affordable housing across the region.
This month, we are welcoming the first tenants into our newest supportive housing community, Valor on the Fax — a 72-unit complex for Coloradans facing housing insecurity because of acquired brain injury or related disability. Valor on the Fax was developed with “trauma-informed design,” meaning that the building’s features reduce symptoms of brain injury.
When tenants settle into their new homes, they are being welcomed with wrap around services from the Brain Injury Alliance of Colorado, including robust resource and community navigation, skills building, and recreational and wellness activities. And of course, our staff will be on site to provide housing resources to the surrounding East Colfax and Original Aurora communities, including rental and utility assistance, homebuyer classes, and more.
Brothers in May will also welcome families, all new first-time homeowners, to Josephine44, a new townhome community we have developed in collaboration with Tiera Colectiva, as part of our work with the GES Affordable Housing Collaborative. The homes will be placed in the Tiera Colectiva Community Owned Land Trust — a community-led effort that Brothers kickstarted in 2017 when we purchased the land trust’s first three homes and secured more than $4 million in grants to help GES families prevent displacement. We have new housing in the works, too.
Brothers is actively working with Arapahoe County to develop a new 80-unit community that would provide housing and supportive services for clients referred from justice system agencies, such as the 18th Judicial District Problem Solving Courts and the Arapahoe County Pretrial Mental Health Program. Spurred by a $3 million grant that the county awarded to Brothers late last fall, the housing and services will help these clients to access behavioral health treatment resources in a stable and safe community setting.
We are also pressing for new housing in Northern Colorado. Brothers has begun to talk, in earnest, with officials in the Town of Erie to develop new affordable housing for the growing community’s workforce. Set to build upon the small senior community that we own today which composes two-thirds of the town’s affordable housing, Brothers hopes to develop as many as 80 new apartments in the next 2-3 years to address a critical need up the northern portion of the I-25 corridor.
A bit lost, but certainly least in our efforts to support affordable housing, is the recent growth we’ve seen in Brothers Property Management, our property management company and exclusive management agent. Over the 8-12 months, our portfolio has swelled to nearly 1,000 affordable units, as we’ve grown to manage new communities serving families, youth exiting foster care and others experience homelessness and ongoing housing insecurity.
These efforts exemplify our organizational values to help house those in need.
No single development can help alleviate the pain of Colorado’s affordable housing crisis. But we can assure our community that nothing will stop us from striving to ensure that every person has a safe place to call home.
