Proposed development offers “poor doors” instead of affordable housing

The city of Denver is clamoring to create affordable housing for many thousands who desperately need it. The danger is that our city leaders will do no better in solving the problem than they have in allowing it.

Over the objections of a majority of West Colfax and Sloan’s Lake neighborhood residents, the Denver Planning Board has approved and recommended to City Council rezoning at West 17th and Newton. This would allow Zocalo Development to build up to 16 stories and we estimate around 800,000 square feet of development on the edge of Sloan’s Lake. Surprisingly, despite his constituents’ objection, the district’s termlimited Councilman Paul Lopez is the applicant for the developer.

In addition to 160 market-rate luxury condos, another 160 units are to be affordable rentals built in the shadow of the high rise, according to the application. Only eight to 12 units will be for sale at affordable housing rates.

The problems with this are manifold. It raises the obvious question of whether the city should approve anything, even an out-of-character, out-of-scale development over the objections of the neighbors just because it includes affordable housing. Doubling the population of the neighborhood on 10 percent of the land without plans to increase infrastructure, services or school capacity harms current and future residents.

Additionally, it raises a new public policy issue for the city of Denver. Is separate but unequal housing a prudent and legal approach to the affordability problem? Similar developments — with separate entrances, common areas, construction quality, finishes and amenities — have been illegal in cities like New York since 2015.

The practice is known as “poor doors” where owners of buildings have different entrances for highincome and needy tenants. The resulting stigma and isolation of the lower-income residents has become the subject of outrage and debate in Washington, D.C., Hawaii, Canada and the UK.

The disparity between “haves” and “have nots” is accentuated in income-segregated buildings where there are gyms, spas, elevators, rooftop gardens, storage areas, and playrooms that only

the high-income tenants can use. Details of the Zocalo luxury condominiums are not included in the rezoning application. However, the residential buildings proposed are part of the same development, have two different architects, separate amenities, separate entrances and separate common areas. And the affordable units are to be built less expensively, with limited views and windows, cheaper finishes and less convenient parking in a separate structure outside the building.

The New York law states that “affordable units shall share the same common entrances and common areas as market-rate units.’’ The reason for the statute is not only a matter of equity and fairness in a political context. Underlying the policy dilemma is the legal doctrine of “disparate impact.” Under Title VI of the federal Fair Housing Act, there need not be intentional discrimination or disparate treatment — disparate impact independent of any intent is sufficient to violate the act.

The disparate impact regulations ensure “that public funds, to which all taxpayers of all races contribute, not be spent in any fashion which encourages, entrenches, subsidizes, or results in racial discrimination.” A housing separation program (such as the subject development proposed by Zocalo) raises issues pertaining to the Fair Housing Act compliance under the disparate impact doctrine. Thus, permitting discriminatory housing that deprives a protected class of individuals from enjoying the benefits of integration may subject Denver to legal liability.

The challenge of how to create quality, affordable, for-rent housing is real … and Denver can overcome it. But creating density enabled by “poor doors” which prohibits integration with the larger community and stigmatizes the residents is not the answer. Denver City Council should be aware that the Zocalo development being touted as acceptable in Denver is currently illegal in cities that are much further along in solving their own affordable

housing issues.