Is Denver ready to say "Yes, in my backyard?" A new poll from housing advocacy group YIMBY Denver of almost 300 likely voters tried to answer that question — and found strong support for building more housing in the city. City Cast Denver sat down with YIMBY Denver president Ryan Keeney to find out more about the poll results.
“We're very excited about the results of this survey,” Keeney said. “The headline here is that there is strong public support for increased housing density among likely Denver voters.”
Keeney and the YIMBYs see increasing the housing supply as an urgent issue. “170,000 people are projected to live east of E-470 and south of DIA by 2050,” Keeney told City Cast Denver. “I think that is unsustainable from a climate perspective, and I don't think that's the number one place people really wanna live. I think if we allowed the types of buildings that would accommodate people in Denver’s central historic streetcar-oriented neighborhoods, they would come."
The ultimate dream? “YIMBY Denver's North Star is that everyone who wants a home in Denver should be able to have a home in Denver, whether they already live here or whether they want to live here,” Keeney said.
YIMBY Denver commissioned the poll from Change Research, which surveyed 297 Denver voters between March 20 and 22, with a margin of error of 6.9%. We’ve presented a selection of the results below and a link to the full crosstabs below.
Survey says!
- Do you support or oppose “allowing more housing in all Denver neighborhoods?”
- 40% strongly support
- 33% somewhat support
- 11% somewhat oppose
- 14% strongly oppose
- 3% not sure
- Which of the following comes closest to your view?
- 27% said Denver neighborhoods with the lowest housing density should be prioritized for homebuilding to ensure growth and the addition of new housing units in those neighborhoods.
- 45% said Denver should get rid of anti-growth rules across all neighborhoods to allow for the addition of new housing units. Neighborhoods where there is more demand for housing units can grow and become more dense.
- 28% said adding new housing units isn’t a priority for Denver right now.
- Do you support or oppose the City of Denver building and owning mixed-income housing in Denver, including both affordable housing and market rate housing, if the effort required a one-time expenditure of city funds and no permanent tax increase?
- 33% strongly support
- 26% somewhat support
- 10% somewhat oppose
- 19% strongly oppose
- 11% not sure
- Do you approve or disapprove of “buildings of up to six units on residential property in any neighborhood in the City of Denver?”
- 28% strongly support
- 30% somewhat support
- 12% somewhat oppose
- 19% strongly oppose
- 11% not sure
Paul Karolyi contributed to today’s YIMBY Denver segment.
