Renters make up the majority of residents in Denver’s East Colfax neighborhood and over the border in Aurora, and the affordability makes the area among the city’s most ethnically diver…
Ye Ye Thin, 64, cooks lunch for her family in her apartment in Denver on April 3, 2024. Thin and her family have lived in the same apartment for 16 years.
About 63% of residents in Denver’s East Colfax neighborhood are renters. The larger East Colfax Avenue corridor, which stretches into Aurora, is among metro Denver’s most ethnically diverse, home to large communities of immigrants, refugees and day laborers, because of its relative affordability. Even as costs have risen, East Colfax has remained among the last lower-cost areas to live.
“I don’t know if we can stress enough the amount of crisis that we’re in,” said Brendan Greene, executive director of theThe Post spoke to dozens of residents, business owners, community leaders, elected officials and experts about plans for the corridor.
Németh and advocates attribute the disinvestment to years of systemic racism, from redlining to leaving communities of color out of decision-making.in 2018, and again in 2022. About 60% of residents were determined to be at risk of involuntary displacement in 2019, while about 30% of residents were living at or below the poverty line.
Ludi Bonilla, a 42-year-old mother of three, has lived in the Denver part of East Colfax for 14 years. She worries about getting pushed out and not having anywhere to go.The Honduran immigrant cleans houses for work, but that slowed significantly during the pandemic. If it wasn’t for a state mortgage assistance program, she said she would have lost her house. But her work hasn’t picked back up.
He’s concerned about losing his business, he said, as the city invests in new developments and improvements. Those include the planned construction ofRather than attracting new businesses, Duplessis said the city should invest in legacy businesses like his Black-owned salon. Upton said the city is also working to stabilize existing affordable housing and invest in community land trust properties. He noted that the only two significant new development projects in East Colfax over the past five years have been affordable housing projects.— almost as a preemptive counter to the city plan — and called it an anti-displacement plan.
Now 69, he said a lot of factors contributed to the decline of Aurora’s former central business district, including retailers not being able to keep up with competition and the city moving its municipal building out of the area. Many of the same buildings remain, but he called the area a shell of what it used to be, leading to an uptick in crime and other problems.
“I don’t want a sidewalk in East Colfax if it means that that investment is going to be the reason that I don’t live in East Colfax,” Lewis said. “How do we ensure that when we make that investment that that investment keeps folks in those communities?”
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