Filling Denver's Missing Middle

At a recent Urban Land Institute (ULI) Colorado event, housing experts said Denver's need to fill its missing middle is increasingly urgent, and that inaction would risk losing integral parts of its labor force, and community dynamics. 

"About 25 percent of people coming to us for affordable homes are making above 80 percent of average median income (AMI), and five years ago we didn’t see that,” says Heather Lafferty, executive director and CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver, adding that this reflects the need of the missing middle. John Covert, regional director of Metrostudy, explained that the market's "buying pyramid is inverted," with no affordable product for the first-time homebuyer to enter the market, UrbanLand reports. 

Lafferty, committee vice chair of Denver’s Housing Advisory Committee, said that goals of the city’s new “Housing an Inclusive Denver” plan include creating 3,000 housing units by 2023, preserving affordability for 1,000 homes, and promoting housing access for and preventing displacement of 20,000 additional households. Up to 30 percent of housing resources will be directed to residents earning 31 to 80 percent of AMI who want to become homeowners or remain in homes they already own.

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