Rent Control

“Rent Control: Let the Discussion Begin!”

As the election season heats up, housing affordability is once again a key issue.  Those in the majority on City Council, who align themselves with the self-named “Boulder Progressives” have repeatedly endorsed free market approaches: build more (and more) and prices will automatically fall. But there is no evidence to support that view. Not in Boulder.  

The demand for Boulder housing is pretty much unlimited. We have more than 60,000 in-commuters. Some use that fact to argue that Boulder needs dramatically more housing built, after which prices will naturally drop. But let’s consider how much housing it would take to end in-commuting and create real pressure on prices. Those commuters likely do not live alone; let’s assume an average of a plus-one for each commuter. To fully satisfy demand, we would need housing for 130,000 new residents, more than doubling our population of 108,000.  

But not only commuters want to live in Boulder. So do people from other states, and countries, and they can afford high prices. 

As we cannot lower prices merely by building our way to affordability, market interventions – in other words, public policies – are the only way to create significant low-priced housing in our endless-demand market.  

One of the tools not currently available to us is rent control and its more flexible cousin: rent stabilization. Back in 1981, Boulder’s Renters Rights Project began a petition drive to place rent control on the Boulder city ballot. Not long after the campaign began, a statewide landlord lobby announced a “crusade” against rent control; a Republican controlled legislature passed a statewide ban which a Democratic governor signed into law, refusing to use his veto power.

Not only did this short circuit a local initiative process that would have given Boulder citizens a chance to debate and vote on a local rent control ordinance, but it also took away an important tool that any Colorado city could have chosen to deal with what has become, over the decades, a critical affordable housing crisis. 

In addition, the ban on rent control means we cannot force market-rate housing developments to include subsidized housing for low- and moderate-income housing on site. Instead, we have to offer the alternative of cash-in-lieu payments which permit developers to buy their way out of including affordable housing within their developments. This prevents the beneficial social and economic integration that results from having people from all racial and economic classes living together. This is not best practice. 

Occasionally developments do provide true inclusionary housing. One project, at 4775 Spine Road in Gunbarrel is combining market rate with more affordable rentals targeted for those making 80% of AMI (annual median income). Another, at 5801 Arapahoe Ave at Old Tale Road, combines market-rate and affordable rental units with the affordable units geared towards a target income of 50% AMI. But these are rare; cash-in-lieu payments are the rule.

This past legislative season, we had a chance to add the option of rent stabilization when Rep. Javier Mabrey introduced a bill to end the ban. The bill passed the House with overwhelming support.  But Governor Polis announced he would veto it, and a Colorado State Senate committee killed the bill.  

The public needs a better understanding of the pros and cons of rent control. In addition, we want to know which of our local legislators will push back against Gov. Polis and his veto threat.  Some of our current City Council members and Mayor Brockett stood strong with Gov. Polis’ attempt to end our home rule on zoning and related issues. Will they now support the effort to permit Boulder to control its own housing destiny?

If we are going to renew the debate over rent control, and we need to, let’s make it about real issues and put aside scare tactics that misrepresent what rent control is, how it works, and what its benefits would be. Let’s learn from the experience of others. 

Let’s start our discussion! ThinkBoulder.org is sponsoring a panel and discussion on rent control/stabilization with speakers including Rep. Mabrey and Todd Ulrich (former president of the Boulder Area Rental Housing Association); the panel is moderated by Rep. Judy Amabile.  For more on the panel, see ThinkBoulder.org.