(COLORADO SPRINGS) — As we head into 2024, affordable housing continues to pose serious problems for Coloradans. On Friday, Jan. 12, FOX21 News spoke with Mayor Yemi Mobolade to get his perspective on what’s causing our local housing crisis—and how we can start fixing it.
The Mayor mentioned three things he sees contributing to the current housing crisis in Colorado Springs: the shortage of affordable housing for middle-income earners, bad legislation that is causing contractors to shy away from building affordable housing, and regulatory barriers to housing development that slow down the process.
“Believe it or not, folks that make between $50,000 to $120,000—that’s where we’re having a hard time with housing,” the Mayor said.
Mayor Mobolade referenced the Colorado Construction Defect Action Reform Act (CDARA), which his administration has championed. CDARA was created to curb legislation that allows for frivolous construction lawsuits over “construction defects” in common interest communities, i.e. condominiums and apartment complexes.
“Construction defects” are defined as issues with the construction or repair, or the design of a construction project. These lawsuits can be brought against any construction professional, including architects, contractors, subcontractors, developers, builders, engineers, inspectors and more.
According to the Mayor, the problem is that since this legislation applies only to condos and apartment complexes, construction professionals are (understandably) avoiding those projects to avoid lawsuits.
“Long story short,” Mayor Mobolade said, “this bad legislation prevents builders from building condos. They get sued, so they virtually stop building condos. And those condos are our entry-level homes. We don’t even have starter homes for people.”
The Mayor said that a couple of bills will be submitted this session to address the issue. His administration is also preparing to tackle regulations he referred to as “barriers” which are causing delays to the construction of affordable homes in Colorado Springs.
“At the city level, I intend to remove barriers around housing development and to accelerate those developments as quickly as possible,” he said.
