COLORADO SPRINGS -- The City of Colorado Springs is looking for public input on how it should spend federal money on affordable housing for people with middle or low incomes.
The definition of affordable housing is if renters or homeowners spend no more than 30% of their income on rent or a mortgage.
Recent data from El Paso and Teller Counties published in January 2024 breaks up households and individuals into different economic groups.
It shows across the lowest three demographics, from people making $27,000 to $73,000 a year, the biggest need is for affordable rental housing.
"There is a shortage. We know that there's a shortage in not just housing, but also affordability," said Ange-Elie Jean with Pikes Peak United Way.
Affordable housing is measured as a percentage of total household income spent on housing. Looking at the "Extremely Low Income," group 82% of households are paying more than half of their income on housing. For the "Very Low" income bracket, 50% are paying more than half of their income on housing and for "Low Income Households" it's 19%.
Jean said thousands of people in our area are paying more than 30% of their income to housing, which means housing is not affordable.
"More families are using more than 30% of their income, or some, some of them, if you're looking at seniors, for example, that are even some of our veterans that are on a limited budget, they are using almost their entire income towards their rental," said Jean.
Jean answers calls on the Pikes Peak United Way 211 line. She helps connect people to health and human services in El Paso County, including housing.
"About a third of our calls are housing related," said Jean.
She said people are calling because they need help paying rent.
"This year so far up to date, we have gotten probably a little bit over 3,000, almost 4,000 calls requesting rental assistance, so people who are working and not being able to afford the rent. And then we have maybe less than 1,000, about 800 calls of people trying to look for low income housing or subsidized housing," said Jean.
How easy is it to find an affordable home? If someone earned $51,000 a year and a third of their income goes to rent, they would need to find an apartment for about $1,280 a month. On apartments.com, there were 791 one-bedroom apartments under $1,300 for rent in Colorado Springs, but on the low income option, there are only 111 apartments available.
This problem is not just impacting renters. Jean said people also need help with their mortgage and finding affordable houses in Colorado Springs.
Being able to afford a home in Colorado Springs is at an all time low. Taking a closer look at a study released by the Common Sense Institute Colorado earlier this year, the report blames that on elevated housing prices and rising interest rates.
It states over the last 10 years, the cost of purchasing a home in Colorado Springs has increased by 82.6%, with most of that rise in the last three years. The report said the average cost of a home is about $450,000, with a 30 year mortgage rate of 6.78% you'll pay about $2,900 a month. That's without factoring in taxes and insurance.
The City of Colorado Springs is hosting two affordable housing public input meetings. The first one is at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, and the second is on Thursday beginning at 1:00 p.m.
Both are at the City Administration Building, which is on the corner of Nevada Avenue and Pikes Peak Avenue.
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