Mayor Yemi endorses Senate Bill 24-106 to increase homeownership opportunities
When I began my term as mayor of Colorado Springs, I launched a Blueprint that identified the areas where my administration would focus by addressing our city’s emerging and most pressing issues and engaging across the community to help make our city stronger for all its citizens.
After engaging thousands of residents in a city-wide listening tour, access to housing remains one of the most critical and pressing issues facing Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region, and finding solutions that will bring more housing within reach of all our city’s residents is one of my highest priorities. We are working locally with leaders from the nonprofit, business, and faith communities to develop strategies that work for Colorado Springs and fit the housing needs of our workforce and employers, but we cannot do it alone. We need action from our state leaders to make buying a home more accessible.
That’s why I join my fellow mayors from across Colorado in calling on the General Assembly to get to work on building more homes. No, I am not suggesting that legislators put on a tool belt and a hard hat; I’m asking lawmakers to help make entry level housing condos a more prominent part of our state’s for-sale housing mix again.
That was the case 20-plus years ago when condos made up about 25 percent of Colorado’s housing market. That was before changes in Colorado laws made it easier for lawsuits to be filed against condo builders, even for minor issues, since lawsuits could go after every unit in a building, making the lawsuits and remedies far more expensive. This litigious atmosphere around condos drove insurance rates sky high, and builders simply stopped building affordable and attainable condos.
Unfortunately, like the rest of the state, condos make up a far smaller percentage of the housing market in Colorado Springs. For the entire Pikes Peak region from 2021 to 2023, there were 11,096 apartment units constructing in the city. Only 56 condo units were built during that same span—just 0.5 percent of units built in that 3-year span.
Why should we care so much about condos? The price point of condos is a perfect fit for first-time buyers looking to start their dream of homeownership. They are great for seniors who want to downsize, freeing up a single-family home for purchase. They help individuals with disabilities own a home close to where they work and public transit and provide the essential workers who drive our economy and community—like teachers, nurses, first responders and public servants—with more opportunities to live where they work, learn, and pray.
Senate Bill 24-106 can make a difference. This bill seeks to amend the state’s Construction Defect Action Reform Act to give homeowners an opportunity to pursue timely and effective remedies for construction claims, get needed repairs to their homes and allow builders and contractors to be a part of making those repairs. The bill will help ensure that homeowners have a faster path to resolve disputes and construction claims, while giving homeowners greater transparency about construction litigation related to their properties.
Making these important policy changes, we believe, will help reduce the magnitude and frequency of lawsuits and insurance claims, thereby decreasing insurance costs and encouraging builders to get back into the condo development market.
Colorado Springs, the Pikes Peak Region and the state of Colorado cannot be successful without addressing our housing needs. It impacts our economy, daily lives, futures and so much more. I am looking forward to helping the Colorado Springs community do its part to encourage more housing development, but we need our state lawmakers to succeed on this issue.
Please support SB24-106; let’s work together to build more entry level housing and provide our diverse community members with an opportunity to build a future and pursue the American Dream of home ownership.
Together we are Colorado Springs! Together we are Colorado.
Onward and upward,
Yemi Mobolade
Mayor
City of Colorado Springs
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