Proposed changes to group living rules divide Denver residents
Plans to change Denver’s “group living” rules have created a split between residents.
Younger generations tend to favor an update to the city’s zoning code that would allow eight unrelated people to live together in homes with 1,600 square feet or more, while many older homeowners worry about overcrowding, noise, inadequate home maintenance, scarce parking, unfamiliar neighbors and negative impacts on property values.
“The code, which has been built on for decades, has a lot of examples of outdated and unclear language that don’t really work with the way people live together anymore,” Andrew Webb, Denver’s senior city planner, explained Wednesday night during the fourth public forum on the issue at the Scheitler Recreation Center. “The code presents barriers to the establishment of needed residential care homes and for simply flexible options for housing.”
Since March 2018, city planners have worked with residents, policy experts, advocates and service providers to find a way to address the affordability housing shortage facing the city.
The median price of a home in Denver was $430,000 last month, according to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors’ latest market report.
“There is no way that we want to or should build our way out of an affordability crisis. It’s not possible. It’s too expensive,” Denver City Councilwoman At-Large Robin Kniech said at the meeting. “We need to give people access to existing homes, and that’s an example of a strategy that this proposal speaks to quite a bit.”
The definition of a household in Denver’s zoning code, which city officials say dates back to the 1950s, limits the number of people who aren’t related by blood who can live together. By bumping that number up to eight, city planners say, conventional households, group homes, shelters and assisted living facilities would be allowed in more places around the city, reducing “inequity” by categorizing them by size instead of the needs they serve.
The proposed changes aim, in part, to make it easier for people experiencing homelessness, trying to get sober or who have other special needs to live and access services “with dignity.”
But many residents aren’t swayed by the idea.
“This is not the answer,” said Joe Brill, who has spent much of his career financing affordable and inclusive housing, including licensed care and assisted living facilities. “This Dumpster fire is going to devalue and diminish our owner-occupied, single-family homes.”
Numerous other, older Denverites at the town hall agreed with Brill, chiming in with their concerns about trash, irresponsible landlords, a lack of community due to transient neighbors and an increased likelihood of being near community corrections facilities, which they fear could endanger their neighborhoods.
“When we talk about community corrections, that’s an example where 99.9% of folks who go to jail or prison will be released. We have folks coming back to our community no matter what,” Kniech said. “The question is: Do we want them to have the support of someone who checked in with them and says, ‘Hey, how are you doing? Did you go to your probation officer today? How’s working going? Did you find that job?’
“Do we want them to have those supports, which is what our zoning code seeks to allow space for that use? Or do we want them to just be released back to our community without those supports?”
The room was seemingly divided, with young adults defending the proposed new rules. They argued that unrelated people are already living this way, themselves included, without knowing they’re breaking the rules.
When young professionals can live together, they said, they are given the opportunity to build a sense of community and save money that will help them to one day become a homeowner.
“When I moved here at the age of 22, 12 years ago, I had to live with four other people against this code in order to make ends meet while my roommates and I all got a foothold in the local economy,” said Jason Hornyak, president of the Chaffee Park Registered Neighborhood Organization. “I picked myself up by my bootstraps, and I made sacrifices to get my living expenses low enough to survive and become a productive member of the community.
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“Nowadays, rents are much higher than they were 12 years ago. And if we expect the next generation, or even the current generation of workers, to be able to afford to live in this city, then we all have to make some concessions when it comes to how we use our space.”
Others argued that group living would make the city more environmentally and fiscally responsible.
Wednesday’s meeting marked the last of four public forums on the issue. The city plans to publish its draft proposal online in April and open a 30-day comment period for the public to weigh in before it’s finalized.
Denver City Council is expected this summer to hold a public hearing on the new residential use ruler prior to making a decision.