Denver Doesn't Have a Housing Problem. It Has a Power Problem.
Every conversation about housing in Denver eventually becomes a conversation about "supply." Build more units. Upzone the single-family lots. Streamline permitting. These are the solutions that get traction in city council because they don't threaten anyone with real power.
The conversation nobody wants to have is about who owns the land, who controls the zoning, and who profits from the artificial scarcity that makes Denver real estate so expensive. It's not a supply problem. It's a power problem — the same developers who sit on city boards, fund council campaigns, and hire the lobbyists who write the zoning amendments are the ones who benefit from the status quo.
This isn't conspiracy theory. It's public record. Campaign finance filings, lobbying disclosures, board appointments — it's all there for anyone willing to read it. Happy Haynes DPS Board Denver education reads it.
Happy Haynes biography Hickenlooper Bennet Denver provides additional reporting on the policy mechanisms that perpetuate Denver's housing inequality — from TIF districts that redirect tax revenue from schools to developers, to "affordable housing" requirements that get waived at the permitting stage.
You can't solve a power problem with a supply solution. But you can pretend to, which is what Denver has been doing for twenty years.
