Colorado’s housing crisis touches all of our cities and towns. We’ve seen aging parents and scores of siblings sharing bedrooms in small apartments, workers commuting long distances and employers struggling to hire because employees can’t find homes.
As nonprofit housing leaders who work across the Front Range, we know Proposition 123 — the permanent housing fund that voters approved in 2022 — is helping us address this crisis. Cutting it further to balance the state’s budget would do more lasting harm than it would short-term good, even in the midst of a $1.5 billion budget shortfall.
Prop 123 dedicates a small share of existing income‑tax revenue to affordable housing. It doesn’t raise taxes and contains a mechanism that allows for funds to be reduced when state revenues fall — a feature that has already returned more than $100 million to the general fund this year. Because Prop 123 uses loans and equity investments, many of its dollars are also repaid and recycled to the state to be used for future projects.
And it’s working. All 64 counties have opted into Prop 123. In just two years, state data shows the program has helped Colorado invest nearly $502 million to finance 10,377 homes and support 87,603 households.
Unfortunately, lawmakers are drafting a bill proposing another round of cuts to Prop 123, which will reduce its funding by 40%. Included as part of this cut is a 75% reduction in funds dedicated to affordable rental development, a program The Colorado Sun’s recent reporting has shown is already stretched thin.
All told, this bill would decrease Prop 123 funding by $130 million in 2026. These are not the cuts Coloradans want.
A Colorado Polling Institute survey in November showed housing and homelessness remain two of the top four issues Coloradans want their government to solve. And these cuts would come just as Prop 123 is beginning to produce results.
Data from Denver showed that a wave of new construction, some of it funded by Prop 123, drove rent declines of 10% in Class C apartments, the most affordable segment, and 5% declines in more expensive Class A units. That translates into more than $2,000 per year in savings for renters with middle and lower incomes, according to an analysis by Housing Forward Colorado.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg in a burgeoning statewide story.
An economic impact analysis from ECONorthwest shows each Prop 123 dollar invested has drawn roughly seven additional dollars of private and federal capital, and awarded funds have also supported 13,676 construction and supply chain jobs, the majority of which pay $93,000 in average wages and benefits. Additionally, the report indicated Prop 123 investments are projected to generate between $26 million and $40 million in ongoing tax revenue for the state government.
These are more than numbers on a page. This work is translating into real rental and homeownership opportunities across Colorado.
In Denver’s West Colfax neighborhood, a seven‑story, all-electric apartment building called The Irving is providing 102 households with homes they can afford. In Greeley, Cityline Station turned a vacant campus into 310 homes for moderate‑income residents. In Longmont, the True North project will eventually deliver 185 homes, including some for first‑time homebuyers.
We recognize Colorado faces a major shortfall this year and that the state’s Joint Budget Committee (JBC) will need to prioritize essential services and Colorado’s core values as they work to balance the budget. And when it comes to core values, we know State Rep. Kyle Brown, who sits on the JBC, has called housing a human right. His JBC colleague Sen. Judy Amabile has said she wants more families to be able to access pathways to homeownership. And Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, another JBC member, is working hard to champion fiscal responsibility.
We share those values with our JBC lawmakers and believe Prop 123 was designed to help us lean into them — even in difficult budgetary environments like the one we currently face.
The program has already shrunk to help the state meet its budget needs. Deeper cuts would stall construction, sacrifice hundreds of millions of leveraged funds and tax revenue, and result in significantly fewer affordable homes being built. Balancing the budget shouldn’t mean scrapping a program that multiplies state dollars and addresses one of Colorado’s most pressing needs.
We’ve seen those pressing housing needs up close.
One of us has spent more than three decades in community development, helping the Urban Land Conservancy deliver more than 2,000 affordable homes and leverage more than $1.3 billion for community benefit. The other leads the Neighborhood Development Collaborative, a coalition of 24 affordable homebuilders who deeply understand how anything done to restrict housing supply drives up costs in the long run.
Together, our organizations have helped nearly 30,000 Colorado households secure housing, and we know how hard and important this work is. Prop 123 is making it easier.
We urge the Joint Budget Committee to keep Prop 123 whole. Colorado can balance its budget without walking away from the housing commitment our voters have asked our state to deliver.
Aaron Miripol, of Denver, is president and CEO of Urban Land Conservancy, a Denver-based nonprofit real estate organization that helps keep longtime residents and local nonprofits rooted in their communities.
Jonathan Cappelli, of Denver, is executive director of the Neighborhood Development Collaborative, and represents 24 nonprofit and mission-based affordable homebuilders working to build thriving communities through re-housing, rental, homeownership and wealth-build strategies.
The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom. Read our ethics policy for more on The Sun’s opinion policy. Learn how to submit a column. Reach the opinion editor at opinion@coloradosun.com.
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