Talk on Tuesday to dive into scarcity of affordable housing in Longmont, beyond

Leaders from three local nonprofit organizations will come together next week to discuss housing in Longmont.

"Red Lines and the Breakdown of the American Dream," a panel discussion from noon to 2 p.m. Tuesday, will feature staff from HOPE for Longmont, The Inn Between and The Reentry Initiative in an effort to raise awareness of the lack of affordable housing, said Kimberly Braun, HOPE director of development who will serve as the event’s moderator. 

“The panel is designed to break open the issue,” she said. “We want to create an understanding from which we want to come to new solutions. We know cases of COVID raising and the effects in the economy will increase the number of people that we serve.”

The lack of affordable housing has been a growing concern the past few years but it has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, Braun said. 

“(As) nonprofits that are devoted to the same services and looking for the same change, we need to draw together, come to the table together,” she said, adding such a collective effort can help push solutions for more equitable housing across the community.

The discussion is a first step in raising awareness and getting the larger Longmont community involved, Braun said. 

“The (expectation) is that people who attend, through the understanding they gain, can put forward new ideas of what we could do,” she said, adding the ultimate goal is for participants to be inspired to self organize to take action. “We want to come up with innovative and creative solutions, small actions steps that can lead to big change.”

More than 60% of local low- to moderate-income households experienced high housing insecurity and 80% of survey respondents worried at least a little about not having enough money to pay for housing, according to the 2016 Human Services Needs Assessment conducted by the city of Longmont. 

More recently, COVID-19 has exacerbated housing concerns. A National Low Income Housing Coalition report published last week found “millions of renter households could be at risk of eviction this winter” because of pandemic-related job and wage loss.  

Panelist Emily Kleeman, executive director of The Reentry Initiative, a countywide organization supporting individuals who are reentering the community after incarceration, has seen first-hand how challenging finding affordable and safe housing can be for low-income individuals. 

“A service worker earning minimum wage with little benefits (is) expected to pay rent well over $1,200 for one bedroom. It’s unreasonable and undoable,” she said. “Housing is such a need everywhere but it’s even more important in Boulder County … (where) the high socioeconomic vs. the low socioeconomic (housing) gap is getting larger.” 

The demographics of Boulder County have changed in the past two decades and it is time for people in the community to realize housing is an issue, Kleeman said.  

“It’s not OK to say (the housing) problem is not in my backyard anymore,” she said. “We want to get the county to realize it has some wealth and financial power, we could create really good housing … and we want to convince people to come to the table.” 

Tuesday’s panel discussion is slated to last an hour, with the last hour devoted to a question-and-answer session. Registration is free and open to anyone interested in joining. 

In anticipation of Colorado Gives Day, which is Dec. 8, Kleeman and Braun also encouraged community members to seize the statewide day of philanthropy and donate to organizations dedicated to addressing the growing affordable housing crisis. 

“Each of us have a duty to support our clients. If you tune in and donate, the funds will go into this … ideal of equitable resources for all,” Kleeman said.