Study Summarizes Transit Oriented Housing

DENVER, CO - A new study on transit-oriented development by the National Housing Trust shows that some affordable housing around bus and rail stations in metro Denver is in danger of disappearing because of expiring federal contracts. Michael Bodaken, president of the National Housing Trust of Washington, D.C., will discuss the study's results in Colorado this week, at affordable housing advocate Housing Colorado's 20th annual conference. The 2008 conference, called "Celebrating the Past, Envisioning the Future" runs Oct. 14-17 in Breckenridge.

"There's a close connection between high transportation costs and high housing costs," Bodaken told the Denver Business Journal on Monday. "This is a study that shows that connection." The National Housing Trust study, called Reconnecting America, looked at transportation and low-income housing in eight U.S. cities, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, New York, Portland, St. Louis and Seattle. Denver ranked seventh of the eight markets for the percentage of housing units near rail stations.

Seventy-five percent of subsidized Section 8 apartments, for people on fixed incomes, in the metro area is located near bus or light rail service routes, according to the study. But nearly 60 percent of those units have federal housing subsidy contracts that will expire in the next five years.

While most of the units are owned by nonprofits, 38 percent are owned by for-profit companies that are more likely not to renew their subsidy contracts. Low-income housing that doesn't renew likely will be replaced with higher-end housing workers currently in Section 8 units can't afford.

"Our study shows 4,000 homes in Denver alone near rapid transit," Bodaken said. "So our suggestion, our strong policy recommendation, is to save that housing. It's a unique resource that once lost you can never get back."

Senior Housing Options Inc. of Denver thinks the progression of the city's FasTracks transit development program "underscores the need to preserve these units." Nationwide there are more than 100,000 low-income housing units near transit, and 63 percent of its contracts are set to expire in the next five years.

Housing Colorado of Denver was created in 2005 by the merger of Colorado Low-Income Housing Campaign, Colorado Rural Housing NOW! and Colorado Affordable Housing Partnership. The National Housing Trust has helped save 20,000 affordable apartments nationwide in the last decade, according to the group.