Affordable housing concerns dominate Gov. Jared Polis' Fort Collins listening session

There were no magical solutions to the affordable housing crisis facing Fort Collins and the surrounding area that dominated discussion during a local listening session with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday night.

But there was a lot of good discussion around housing, transportation, workforce, small business and water, open spaces and neighborhood issues among the 120 people invited to participate, ranging from single mothers and college students to homeless advocates and school-district superintendents, county commissioners and city council members.

Participants, in general, seemed pleased with the wide range of voices that came together to participate in a roundtable format at Colorado State University’s Lory Student Center.

The goal, the governor said, was to listen to the concerns of people living and working in Fort Collins and Larimer County and what could be done at the state level to navigate the challenges they were facing.

“It felt validating to know that other people are facing the same concerns and the same issues that I am,” said Mellisa Rasor, who described herself as a low-income single mom “struggling just to pay the rent each month."

“To know that the state is trying to do something to support us and help us through these challenges is super important.”

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The prompt was to think about what the headlines might be in a “Time” magazine cover issue about Colorado in 2026, when the state celebrates its 150th anniversary.

Participants sat at 10 different tables, each seating up to a dozen people, and jotted down responses that were read out loud to a handful of questions on that table’s specific topic. Questions were asked by members of the governor’s cabinet and staff, and each table had someone typing in the responses that will be shared with Polis’ senior staff as it sets the governor’s policies and agenda.

Participants were randomly placed at tables covering one of the five topics — housing, transportation, workforce, small business and water/open spaces/neighborhoods to begin the session, and the topic at each table changed after the first of two 20-minute sessions. For the final session, which lasted 30 minutes, participants moved to tables where their topic of choice was being discussed.

Listening sessions using the same topics and formats were recently held in Aurora, Grand Junction and Pueblo, said Katie Jones, a deputy press secretary in the governor’s office.

“There’s so many different communities all over our state, from Pueblo to Grand Junction to Fort Collins, and the state’s role is really to help communities become what they want to become, to help empower you to live up to your aspirations,” Polis told a reporter between check-ins at various tables to hear, first-hand, what was being said. “And so, we need to really hear about the vision for Fort Collins, so we can align state policy to help Fort Collins and Larimer County realize its potential.”

Affordable housing was the topic that drew the most attention. People were concerned about solving local homelessness issues, and increasing housing costs that are forcing people to leave the community for jobs elsewhere or longer commutes that would add to the growing problems of traffic congestion and air pollution.

Longtime resident Jerry Gavaldon said it is disappointing that so many of the children of current residents can’t afford to remain in Fort Collins as adults. A similar concern was expressed by a CSU professor, who said many of her students would like to stick around after graduation but can’t. The community suffers, they both said, because those people would be able to make valuable contributions to Fort Collins and the surrounding area.

Unregulated rent increases, rising property taxes, ethnic segregation prompted by housing costs and a brain-drain that is forcing highly educated professionals to leave the area to find work were other common themes.

Transportation was a big focus, as well. The limited routes and service hours of Fort Collins’ Transfort bus system makes the use of mass transit difficult, as does the siloed approach of each community in the region having its own bus system with little regard for connectivity to others in Northern Colorado.

Conversation about specific topics often overlapped, with zoning restrictions limiting higher density residential dwellings described by many as a roadblock to an improved mass-transit system.

“There was a lot of discussion about needing to have the density that would support public transit and more opportunity for people to live closer to where they need to go that will help lessen transportation problems,” a table leader said while providing a summary afterward to the full group.

Rail service, traditional or high speed, linking Fort Collins to Denver and possibly as far south as Colorado Springs, was also pushed as a way to alleviate traffic congestion along Interstate 25.

Not all the talk was focused on what Fort Collins doesn’t have, though.

Participants praised the city’s bicycle-friendly culture, including the extensive network of bicycle routes and trails that make commuting by bicycle an option for many residents. They also expressed gratitude for the city and county’s commitment to open spaces, incentivizing xeriscaping and other environmentally friendly landscaping and the quality of the local water supply.

On the small-business front, participants spoke highly of the commitment of residents to support locally owned businesses and mostly praised the work of the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce. Additional support that would connect small businesses and better allow them to help each other navigate some of the roadblocks they encounter was endorsed by a majority of participants.

But like the discussion at the workforce tables, talk quickly reverted back to the high cost of housing and the resulting struggle businesses of all sizes have in recruiting and retaining employees.

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Many participants praised Polis for his efforts to allow higher density residential development centered around rail and bus transportation hubs through executive orders and later a bill in the Colorado General Assembly that was passed by the House of Representatives but blocked by the Senate.

Polis issued another executive order last month “directing his administration to promote and streamline affordable, environment-friendly housing development in Colorado that’s focused around transit,” the Colorado Sun reported.

Discussing his efforts to address concerns about a lack of affordable housing and the impacts it is having on communities across the state, the governor told the Coloradoan on Thursday evening that he would continue to push for solutions.

“Of course there’s pushback, because if there wasn’t opposition, it would have been done already and houses would be a lot less expensive,” Polis said. “If we’re serious about making housing available at lower cost in Colorado, then of course we need to look at every avenue that we can to do that. We need to think really big and take ideas from across the state to make that really happen.”

Kristin Stephens, a Larimer County commissioner, said she took four full pages of notes on the discussion that took place at her tables. The format of the listening session, she said, was conducive to open dialogue, and the extreme views on both sides of issues that tend to dominate public comment during formal meetings of local governing boards were not heard.

“If you take a big sampling of the general public, I don’t think there’s so much animosity,” Stephens said. “There’s this willingness to come together to try to solve the problems. That part was really nice. Everybody at all the tables I was at were really active and engaged.”

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, twitter.com/KellyLyell or facebook.com/KellyLyell.news. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Affordable housing dominates Colorado governor's listening session