Tuesday, August 11, 2026, 1:30 p.m. (Denver time), City & County Building, Room 391
The Community Planning and Housing Committee, chaired by Council Member Amanda Sawyer, heard a presentation from City housing staff and the Denver Housing Authority (DHA) on the DHA Delivers for Denver (D3) intergovernmental agreement, a bond-funded pilot program launched in 2018 with two components: D3 Direct developments and D3 Permanent Supportive Housing land banking. DHA reported completing 1,161 units on the direct side (959 deed-restricted) and 600 permanent supportive housing units, and requested amendments reducing unit targets (D3 PSH from 1,200 to 1,100 total units), removing Westridge from the D3 count, extending deadlines to attach development partners to 2028 and deliver units to 2038, cleaning up restrictive covenant language, and formalizing a waiver of the 15% per-district spending cap. Council members asked about unit counting, the 202 un-restricted Sun Valley units, the district spending cap exceedance (41% in District 8), Westridge redevelopment plans, and reporting through 2038. The item was an action item; a motion was made by Council Member Torres and seconded, and no roll call vote was needed. The committee had no consent items and adjourned.
0:07 Welcome back to this weekly
0:07 meeting of the community
0:08 Planning and Housing Committee
0:11 with Denver City Council.
0:15 If your community planning and
0:17 Housing Committee starts now.
0:24 All right. Good I'm not
0:27 wearing my reading glasses.
0:27 Good afternoon, everyone. It
0:30 is Tuesday, AUGUST 11th. This
0:31 is the Housing and
0:32 homelessness committee of
0:33 Denver City Council and Amanda
0:33 Sawyer of the honor of
0:34 representing the residents of
0:37 District 5 and and the vice
0:38 chair of this committee. And
0:39 I'll be chairing today. So
0:43 watch out world before we get
0:45 started. Will do council
0:46 member introductions and I
0:51 will start first. COUNCILMAN
0:55 Remy district, 7. Fantastic.
0:56 And then I'm gonna let you to
0:57 fight it out for who goes
1:00 first to meet our U.S. Was
1:02 Denver. I'm gonna bring it
1:03 Diana Romero, Campbell,
1:06 Southeast Denver district 4.
1:08 Fantastic. We have one action
1:09 item. Today-they does want to
1:11 introduce yourselves and take
1:13 it away. As Cole. Taylor
1:13 executive director of the
1:15 Department of Housing
1:17 Stability. I'm Erin Clark and
1:17 the chief real estate
1:18 investment officer with the
1:20 Denver Housing Authority. All
1:22 right. Well, Aaron is going to
1:25 be the start of the show
1:26 today. Thanks to the many of
1:28 you who took briefings on this
1:29 topic. We appreciate the
1:29 opportunity to talk with you
1:32 about that. And and through
1:34 the the presentation and the
1:35 amendment that we're bringing
1:39 forward. This project has been
1:40 underway for a really long
1:42 time since back in 2018,
1:42 errant going provide a
1:46 background in overview, the
1:47 history of it as well as talk
1:48 about what we've learned
1:49 through this and what we were
1:52 able to deliver through. The
1:55 dha delivers for Denver
1:56 Intergovernmental Agreement.
1:58 And so with that, I'll turn it
1:59 over to Aaron to provide an
2:00 update on that as well as the
2:01 amendments that were preparing
2:01 to bring forward their
2:05 counsel. Thank you so much.
2:08 Thank you. Calls been have
2:09 really good to work with you
2:14 on this and this is a number
2:15 of years in the making for us
2:18 to be in front of you today.
2:21 When I joined Ha in 2022, I
2:22 was really excited to get to
2:24 know this program. Dha
2:26 delivers Purdum birthing kits
2:27 and really quite an
2:31 impressive, really. Thoughtful
2:35 approach to intergovernmental
2:35 partnerships. I'm really
2:36 leveraging some of the best
2:40 tools of the city with the
2:42 best tools of the housing
2:42 authority and looking at how
2:43 we can work together to move
2:49 things forward. Faster to
2:51 create more affordable housing
2:51 and deeper affordability. And
2:55 so. Dj delivers for Denver, d
2:58 3, which we know can be.
2:59 Especially Jamie Torres here
3:07 and r d 3. But this program
3:09 really it's it's one big pilot
3:10 program that's broken up into
3:11 2 distinct sections. And so
3:14 you'll hear me throughout this
3:16 presentation. Talk about 3
3:18 direct Andy, 3 permanent
3:19 supportive housing d 3 land
3:26 banking. So nice to see you.
3:26 COUNCILMAN Cashman and so
3:27 wanted to start out. The first
3:31 light here is mapping too
3:35 subsets of this program. So
3:37 you see that on the left are d
3:37 3 direct location. So those
3:42 are. And the where it was dh
3:46 is existing pipeline that we
3:49 agreed 4 additional funding to
3:50 support from the city to move
3:52 those projects forward. And so
3:54 you'll see a lot of those 7 of
3:56 those 10 projects are in the
4:00 Sun Valley neighborhood. We
4:04 also have 6.55 Broadway
4:05 Studebaker laughs and 32nd and
4:07 So those are 10 d 3 direct
4:11 projects and then on the
4:13 permit, supportive housing
4:14 side, dha acquired 11
4:15 properties across 6 different
4:17 council districts throughout
4:18 the city. So you'll see that
4:20 we have more geographic
4:22 distribution with respect to
4:24 that land making part of the
4:24 program and we'll dive more
4:26 into those particular projects
4:27 and as we go forward in the
4:28 present throughout the
4:32 presentation to start with
4:35 some history that a number of
4:36 you weren't directly a part of
4:37 And others of you joins later
4:39 on as we've been working
4:41 through through the degree
4:43 program. But original premise
4:44 was simply that affordable
4:48 housing need immediate it
4:49 remains the media today. We
4:53 and we know that but the idea
4:56 that dj could rapidly produce
5:01 more affordable and being able
5:02 to leverage the city is for
5:02 thought in terms of creating
5:05 the Affordable Housing Fund to
5:08 put money dollars directly
5:12 into using property tax
5:13 allocations to repay The city
5:16 joined forces with tha so that
5:17 we could use our revenue bond
5:20 issue in capacity backed by
5:23 city's affordable Housing
5:27 Fund. 2, we ended up with
5:27 129.0, 81 million dollars and
5:28 net bond revenues to put
5:30 towards this with just over
5:33 50% of those dollars being for
5:34 the land. Be King side of the
5:37 program. And just under 50% of
5:38 those funds being used for the
5:42 deep 3 direct kind of feeling
5:43 capital stacks for for direct
5:48 developments by dha. So in
5:48 going to the timeline at the
5:53 bottom of the slide. We
5:53 started of course, the city
5:54 creating that affordable
5:57 Housing fund in 2016 moved on
6:02 to in The city adopted housing
6:06 plan. And that is also when
6:06 executed the intergovernmental
6:09 agreement between our 2
6:11 organizations in 2019 dha
6:15 issued those revenue and then
6:20 we're off to the races. So
6:21 between 2020 2023, through we
6:23 look for strategic
6:24 acquisitions and we did
6:30 complete 11 different property
6:31 acquisitions that two-year
6:36 Some of those were. Us going
6:37 out to find vacant land
6:38 opportunities. Others were
6:41 opportunities brought to us,
6:43 for example, Fusion Studios
6:44 with Colorado Coalition for
6:48 the Homeless on on the old
6:52 airport area that was I think
6:52 that was an opportunity that
6:54 they brought to us 2 dead that
6:56 fit within the and with them
6:59 the the goals of 3 program.
7:01 And we did acquire that
7:02 property for Cch to then be
7:04 the owner and operator of that
7:09 facility. In 2021. When I
7:13 prior to being a tha I was
7:16 selling property to tha home.
7:17 Whenever that Urban Land
7:17 Conservancy partnered on the
7:18 Mosaic Community campus. So
7:23 that's how dha then was
7:24 involved with Denver Public
7:25 Schools and with the Urban
7:27 Land Conservancy too, to
7:29 purchase that campus dj owns
7:31 land in 2 buildings. There. So
7:36 all of those happened between
7:38 2020 2023 at the same time, dj
7:40 was conducting self
7:42 developments and moving for
7:43 the pipeline for the Deep 3
7:46 direct of the program.
7:47 And so again, a lot of that
7:50 was the Sun Valley
7:52 redevelopment really moving
7:56 forward that transformation
7:57 choice neighborhoods grant
8:02 that we received in 2016 and
8:07 these funds from the city on
8:08 top of grant dollars that we
8:10 had That's really what
8:11 supercharge us being able to
8:12 ultimately successfully
8:17 deliver 965 new apartments and
8:18 townhomes and some valley to
8:20 go from 333 former public
8:23 housing units to 965 units of
8:26 affordable housing there
8:30 today. Brand-new construction.
8:31 Working. The other thing
8:33 working today is how we're
8:34 getting getting the park there
8:35 next year. And so really
8:36 excited to finish that out.
8:39 And without kind of those sea
8:40 dollars from the federal
8:42 government and from our local
8:43 government, we would not have
8:46 been able to move this quickly
8:47 and to close in a timely
8:48 fashion on all 7 of those
8:50 projects of those tax credit
8:54 deals. So this was really very
8:55 critical to moving that
8:56 forward and ultimately
8:56 resulted in over 550 million
8:58 dollars worth of of
9:04 development activity. So we
9:07 are now at the stage of
9:09 between 2026 talent. 2031
9:11 looking to complete 3 other
9:11 projects, permanent supportive
9:14 housing projects that are in
9:19 progress. Now. Then we are
9:20 looking for is a 20 year bond
9:24 maturity. And so the full
9:25 program, all of the bonds to
9:28 be repaid by 2038. But you'll
9:28 see in the middle of the
9:32 slide. Our original target for
9:33 the program. We settle this up
9:37 in 2018 was to deliver. 2500
9:40 total 12, 1300 of those on the
9:42 d 3 direct side. 1200 of those
9:43 on the permanent supportive
9:47 housing side. The d 3 direct
9:48 side of the program is
9:49 complete. We have already
9:50 finished all of those
9:53 projects. Those we got we
9:55 opened our final of those 10
10:01 in 2025. So ultimately we
10:03 resulted in 1161 total units
10:03 that were completed on that
10:08 side of the program. 959 of
10:10 those are deed restricted in
10:12 perpetuity and that when we
10:12 say in perpetuity really mean
10:17 dj. On both sides of the
10:19 program. Dj maintained land
10:22 ownership for all of these
10:24 projects. And so they are a 99
10:26 year, renewable ground So
10:32 those units are permanently
10:33 income restricted and then
10:34 permanent supportive housing
10:34 you'll see that on the
10:38 side of the program. We have
10:40 completed 600 total units so
10:41 far as of the end of this
10:46 year. And original target was
10:48 1200 units, one of the
10:50 amendments that we are putting
10:52 before you today related to
10:53 those is unit targets. And
10:56 we'll we'll talk more about
10:57 are rational for wanting to to
11:00 ship those numbers. These are
11:00 the pretty pictures that show
11:03 everything that. All of your
11:06 dollars went toward. So. We
11:11 have the 7 tax credit projects
11:13 in Sunvalley Gateway, South
11:15 Gateway, North. Those actually
11:16 did not receive direct $3
11:17 because they were already in
11:20 the pipeline before we started
11:23 all of But they did. Do you
11:27 count towards the total and
11:27 that they were contemplated as
11:28 a part of all of this. And it
11:30 is part of the the overall
11:32 plan. But there were direct
11:33 dollars in the other 5
11:35 projects that are listed here.
11:37 Greenhouse thrive, chilly soul
11:40 and flow. So 6 of the 7
11:41 developments we're our
11:45 families. Flow is a senior
11:48 disabled. 12 story high-rise.
11:51 It has 212 units and a whole
11:57 Further subsidized with
11:57 half of those 106 units.
12:00 project vouchers. And so they
12:00 are for deep affordability.
12:04 30% am I in below across all
12:06 of Sunvalley, approximately
12:09 80% of our units are income
12:12 restricted about 20% are
12:14 unrestricted. But we are at
12:15 this leasing everything at or
12:16 below 80% of the area. Median
12:21 income. And then we had
12:22 scattered sites identified as
12:27 well. So Studebaker losses. 33
12:28 units of affordable housing
12:30 above the Patagonia store at
12:31 the corner of 15th and Blake
12:32 in LoDo. The turquoise
12:35 building in the Middle an
12:38 office to residential
12:39 conversion that 6.55
12:41 Broadway's that used to be
12:41 Denver, Health's
12:42 administrative offices. And
12:45 this is on Denver Health
12:46 campus. So that projects
12:48 expected by broadening
12:50 represents another amazing
12:51 partnership of local
12:52 institutions. So it's city
12:53 it's tha and it's Denver
12:55 health. And in that
12:59 developments are 110 units of
13:00 housing all affordable. Again,
13:07 a senior disabled the second
13:07 floor is specifically a
13:08 partnership with Denver
13:10 Health, where they referrals
13:16 of. Folks who have been in the
13:18 hospital who our unhoused and
13:19 issue are ready to be
13:21 medically discharged from the
13:23 hospital rather than them
13:26 being discharged to the to the
13:27 streets while there still are
13:28 recovering, they have the
13:30 option to go to one of the
13:31 single room occupancy units on
13:33 the second floor of 65
13:34 Broadway to continue the
13:35 recovery work with housing
13:37 navigators and ultimately
13:38 hopefully be go through a
13:39 pipeline to get to permanent
13:44 housing. And so that is pilot
13:44 within 3 pilot. But I just
13:48 wanted to highlight as well.
13:51 And then the final scattered
13:52 32nd interests. Tony, that was
13:53 for public housing on that
13:54 site. That is now new
13:55 construction there in
13:57 Highlands.
14:00 Part of why we're here in
14:03 front of you and again to
14:07 share. Through a pilot. The
14:09 point of it us to learn some
14:10 lessons along the way and see,
14:12 ok, our original idea pan out
14:15 and and how think it has been
14:16 very successful in terms of
14:18 the delivery model, but there
14:19 are just some specific tweaks
14:20 we need to make along the way.
14:21 And a lot of that is in
14:25 creating more flexibility. So
14:27 in this case, we had built out
14:30 the program with some very
14:32 specific. We're going to build
14:33 going to be in exactly these
14:33 this many units and they're
14:38 income bans. Things like that.
14:39 Development is very complex a
14:42 lot of those Sun Valley
14:43 developments Julie, for
14:44 example, had a capital stack.
14:46 That was 12 sources deep.
14:47 Every one of those sources has
14:49 its own other kind of
14:50 competing obligations and
14:51 Linda requirements and things
14:53 of that nature. And so a lot
14:56 of what we're asking for in
14:56 terms of proposed amendments
15:00 is. To reflect some of what
15:02 has changed some of what we
15:03 had to respond to along the
15:05 way to deliver the units that
15:06 we did also to think through
15:09 how we can create building a
15:11 little more flexibility going
15:13 forward to make sure that this
15:15 is successful. So the market
15:18 conditions change drastically.
15:19 This is not news that you're
15:22 hearing from And so you know
15:24 what this slide is showing
15:26 what these bars are showing is
15:29 the Lake Green is where the
15:31 assumption was at the time of
15:34 the and darker green is where
15:39 we actually ended up. So for
15:40 Sunvalley alone, we were
15:43 projecting in 2018 pre-covid
15:45 total development cost for
15:48 those projects of around
15:51 332 Million. We ended up at
15:52 480 Million. You'll see that
15:55 93 million of that was in the
15:58 middle. There was in the hard
16:05 construction costs and so.
16:06 Essentially the cost the
16:10 market we're moving a lot
16:10 faster, increasing a lot
16:12 faster than what we had
16:15 originally modeled borrowing
16:16 capacity titans. We were in