DENVER — Denver is getting ready to host its fourth annual housing summit on Thursday. It’s a time when people from the public and private sector come together to talk about the state of housing in Colorado.
About 600 industry experts, community leaders, nonprofit groups and financial experts are expected to attend the summit. It will happen at the Hyatt hotel in downtown Denver and will include panels as well as breakout groups, which will be in both English and Spanish.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock has been a driving force behind the annual summit and the focus on affordable housing. He helped create the first housing fund in Denver that dedicates $150 million over the next 10 years for affordable housing.
The summit has garnered national attention. The U.S. Deputy Secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Pamela Hughes Patenaude, is expected to attend. The summit will also feature a keynote speech from Dr. Frank Nothaft, who is the chief economist for CoreLogic.
The five breakout sessions will focus on preserving affordable housing, financing affordable housing, helping more Coloradans find a path to homeownership, minimizing the number of people kicked out of their homes and creating permanent housing solutions for the homeless.
Denver officials say they expect income restrictions on thousands of affordable housing units to expire, meaning many people could be forced to leave their homes. One of the breakout sessions will take a critical look at how other cities have handled affordable housing challenges and see if any of those strategies can be applied to Denver.
