Aurora will build 600 affordable housing units

Kwasi Dennis needs a place to live but he says apartments are just too expensive.

"As somebody who's looking for housing it is incredibly hard," he said. "The cheapest I've seen for like a studio typically goes around 1,100 and that's not really including utilities or anything."

That's not really feasible for him right now, much less if rents keep rising. The city of Aurora knows there are lots of families just like him.

"We're estimating about 8,500 units of a gap in the city of Aurora," said Alicia Montoya the Housing and Community Development Manager for the city of Aurora.

She says that's why they have committed themselves to providing affordable housing for their residents. In 2020 they adopted a housing strategy to close the gap between people who need affordable housing like Kwasi and the number of units available.

Their first effort is to develop and maintain 600 affordable housing units on three pieces of land the city bought in October of 2022. Two of them are located at 15961 E Colfax Avenue and 15978 E 16th Avenue.

"This is one of many efforts we are working on, but at the end of the day the goal is to close that gap," said Montoya.

The city says they are also working on preserving units already available and searching for financial resources to create even more affordable units.

Kwasi says he could benefit from a project like the one currently underway if he could get into a unit, which he anticipates will be highly sought after. He also says that more needs to be done.

"We need to have drastic changes to make sure that all of Colorado is affordable not just Aurora," said Dennis.

He would like to see the state repeal the ban on rent control.

"To get some more stabilization so that way more families can stay there and raise their kids there," said Dennis.

While he waits, the city of Aurora says they need developers to help them start chipping away at the need for a decent affordable place to live.

"Tell us your ideas. We want to hear about them and see what we can do," said Montoya.

Proposals from developers will be accepted until August 18 2023.