Colorado Gov. Jared Polis gave a “State of the State” address at Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs on Monday as part of a broader tour throughout Colorado.
Before his speech, Polis made a brief visit to the Valley Alliance to End Homelessness’s third regional quarterly meeting, also at CMC. Earlier in the day, Polis visited a pilot modular housing initiative in Eagle and an accessory dwelling unit in Glenwood Springs owned by Glenwood Springs Councilman Jonathan Godes.
Polis made “innovative housing opportunities” a main focus of his activities on Monday, according to a news release. Housing topped the list of Colorado’s “great challenges” which the governor addressed in Monday’s speech.
“The good news is that people want to live in Colorado. But the bad news is the word has gotten out. And that’s driven up home prices,” Polis said.
He said “artificial constraints” on housing supply are preventing Colorado from meeting its housing demand. The governor added that workers are being forced to move farther from where they work in order to find affordable housing, meaning that in a single year the average Coloradan now spends $1,800 per year in gas for their commutes.
“The answer to affordability is not to make people live further and further away,” Polis said.
He said the state has tools it can use to support local organizations in improving housing conditions. He also referenced an August 2023 executive order he signed in order to shorten the Colorado Division of Housing’s timeline for awarding housing grants and loans from a 240-day turnaround to 90 days. Polis said the measure would help to speed up housing construction.
Polis said that along with public safety, housing prices are a concern he hears about in every corner of the state.
The governor also noted that Colorado is nearing its 150th anniversary in 2026, arguing that as the state approaches such a milestone, Coloradans should be reflecting on what kind of society they want to live in.
“We want to make our second 150 years even better than the first,” he said.
Housing instability
Before giving his address, Polis stopped in for a visit with representatives from the seven local organizations that make up the Valley Alliance to End Homelessness.
VAEH, an initiative formed by the West Mountain Regional Health Alliance, coordinates efforts by these organizations to create a “regional continuum of coordinated and accessible resources” for people experiencing homelessness in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys.
During the meeting, VAEH staff presented recent data and trends on regional homelessness, and a panel of five local nonprofit workers and government officials answered questions about housing issues in the region.
According to data presented during the meeting, the number of homeless clients active in VAEH’s system increased drastically between 2021 and 2022, climbing from 99 to 159 individuals. That number has dropped only slightly in 2023.
The VAEH homeless response partners housed 102 people in 2022 and 93 in 2023 for a total of 195 people, according to a new release. The average length to secure housing went from 134 days in 2022 to 64 days in 2023.
During his visit at the meeting, Polis pointed to the power of local organizations in tackling local issues. The governor said he was particularly interested in VAEH’s ability to coordinate services across a range of organizations to provide diverse and geographically comprehensive responses.
Panelists agreed that coordination between the region’s various organizations dedicated to serving homeless clients was essential.
Rob Stein, a volunteer coordinating the town of Carbondale’s response to a recent influx of unhoused Venezuelan migrants, noted that organizations can often become rooted in their missions and their service areas while resisting adaptation. With broader coordination, however, these organizations can capitalize on each other’s strengths and overcome their limitations.
Nonetheless, panelists said that despite their growing work and coordination, the valley still was not prepared to accommodate more than 100 Venezuelan immigrants who have been living without housing in Carbondale since the summer and fall. Migrants began arriving in Carbondale after fleeing an economic crisis in their home country.
Wendee Fisher, a program manager at VAEH partner organization Recovery Resources — which operates a homeless shelter in Aspen — said capacity already was a challenge for many local organizations before the newcomers arrived.
“Everyone's asking, who’s going to step up? But really, everybody’s already running … we have to find a way to pivot and be creative, which can be difficult when burnout is a real thing in social services,” Fisher said.
The town of Carbondale is providing shelter for up to 100 migrants at its town hall and a Methodist Church.
While answering reporters' questions after his address, Polis said the federal government needs to expedite the asylum process for Venezuelans already in the country and secure the U.S-Mexico border so that states like Colorado aren't struggling to manage influxes of migrants.
“The president and Congress need to secure the border. There is a unique opportunity for a bipartisan border security bill to pass that will hire the border security agents, build the fencing and drones and infrared [equipment] that will secure the border,” Polis said.
Venezuelan migrants have arrived in cities across Colorado, including more than 26,000 in Denver.
In the near future, WMRHA hopes to expand its options for rental units it can use to house homeless clients. WMRHA, which manages VAEH, has hired two new “housing navigators” whose job will be to communicate with local landlords about making their properties part of the VAEH system.
Jose Saez, one of the new housing navigators, said he will look high and low to find viable options.
“I’ll knock on the door and I’ll ask your friends, I'll ask your friends’ friends, and I'll ask your friend’s dog, just to try to help somebody get housing,” Saez said.