7 minute read
High home prices, lack of supply sever metro residents from communities
summer, he felt like he’d won the lottery. After more than a decade of chasing the cheapest rent across the metro area, the Littleton bartender nally has a house to call his own.
middle-income people live where they work. But as cities and towns contend with historically high home costs and a lack of supply, residents like Laney have struggled to live in their communities.
VOLUME 96 | ISSUE 12
State of education report finds teachers in need of more support
BY ALISON BERG ROCKY MOUNTAIN PBS
Survey results conducted by the largest educator’s union in Colorado paint a bleak picture of how most educators feel in their jobs.
e Colorado Education Association recently surveyed around 1,600 public educators in the state and found their main concerns were lack of investment in the education system, disrespecting their professional experience and feeling unsafe at work. ose issues were more pronounced for LGBTQ+ educators, who said they felt particularly unsafe existing authentically at work. Education association leadership members presented the report in a press conference last week they called “State of Education,” mimicking the nationwide “State of the Union,” address.
“Respecting our educators as experts means centering our voices in legislation that a ects our work,” said Amie Baca-Oehlert, a high school counselor and president of the Colorado Education Association. “We need to be asking our educators who do the job every day what is needed.”
Baca-Oehlert said the COVID-19 pandemic, skyrocketing costs of living with wages that haven’t kept up, an increase in school shootings and politicization of the classroom have all pushed teachers out of the profession.
BY ROBERT TANN COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
When Chris Laney moved into his new three-bedroom home last
INSIDE: CALENDAR: PAGE 7 | VOICES: PAGE 8
“I almost feel guilty that I have it,” said Laney, 49.
Laney is one of a handful of residents who have secured housing through a subsidized program aimed at helping lower- and
“I’ve always felt like I was just passing through instead of living somewhere, putting down roots,” said Laney. He has worked
Most survey respondents pointed to low pay as their primary reason for leaving the profession. An average teacher’s salary in Colorado is about $60,000, the report states, which is 35% less than comparablyeducated adults. e National Education Association also reported Colorado ranks 49th in the country for paying its teachers a liveable wage.
Dave Lockley, educator and president of the District 12 Educator Association, said his district in Westminster currently has 40 vacant paraprofessional and educator positions, meaning teachers are stretched even thinner trying to ful ll roles outside their job description without pay matching the extra work.
“Every time we’re missing one of these key cogs in the larger machine of education, it means our students don’t get the education they deserve,” Lockley said. “We’re asking our educators to sometimes do double the amount of workload that they’re doing and they’re falling o and leaving at an unprecedented rate.”
Twenty-one percent of survey respondents said they considered leaving education due to politicallymotivated attacks on their curriculum or themselves.
“Especially as social studies teachers and across the board with educators, we try to present a variety of perspectives for kids so they can learn, be e ective problem solvers and be critical thinkers,” said Kevin Vick, vice president of the Colorado Education Association and a teacher in Colorado Springs. “What we’re seeing on an increasing basis is educators getting harassed over and over again for not supporting one particular viewpoint in the classroom.”
Teachers in the LGBTQ+ community reported higher levels of concern than their cisgender, heterosexual peers. According to the survey report, 85% of LGBTQ+ educators reported not being “out,” at school, and 80% reported working in a school without gender-neutral restrooms.
Additionally, 40% of LGBTQ+ educators said they had witnessed or heard about students being harassed or discriminated against, and 45% said if their school engages in equity work, they are not asked to be involved in such work.
Several education association leadership members said LGBTQ+ teachers being mistreated is an issue both for the teacher and for LGBTQ+ students, as students gain a perception of the “real world,” at school.
“It’s important to understand that these statistics of how welcome or unwelcome our LGBTQ educators feel at their schools provide a mirror of how our LGBTQ students feel at their school as well,” Baca-Oehlert said. e 2022 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey also told a dismal story for LGBTQ+ children: around 20% of gay, bisexual and lesbian youth reportedly attempted suicide in the last year. e number was higher for transgender students at 26%. is story is from Rocky Mountain PBS, a nonpro t public broadcaster providing community stories across Colorado over the air and online. Used by permission. For more, and to support Rocky Mountain PBS, visit rmpbs.org. at Jake’s Brew Bar in Littleton since 2012.
“I think it also sends a message to the students in that building that if the educator isn’t accepted, what does that mean for me, as a student,” said Kasey Ellis, counselor and president of the Cherry Creek Education Association.
As American public spaces are plagued by gun violence, 67% of respondents reported feeling “very” or “somewhat” worried about a mass shooting at their school. While some politicians have proposed increasing school security and arming teachers with guns, most respondents said carrying guns would make them feel even less safe. What would help increase feelings of security, 39% of respondents said, is increased access to mental health resources.
While the state legislature convenes over the next several months, education association members said they hope legislators prioritize a ordable housing, higher teacher’s salaries, education licensing, educator working conditions and mental health for both students and teachers.
“ ough Coloradans often pride themselves on being progressive and championing inclusion, our state’s budget on education tells a di erent story,” Baca-Oehlert concluded.
“ is is where I want to be,” Laney said. “My friends and family are Jake’s.” e median price of a singlefamily home in the metro area has roughly tripled since 2010, according to an August 2022 report by the Colorado Association of Realtors. Back in 2010, the median price was about $200,000.
In numerous counties, residents — spanning a range of employment from the service industry to teaching — have faced the brunt of what many o cials are calling a housing crisis.
And wages have not kept up with home costs. Between 2000 and 2019, median rents rose at a faster rate than household incomes “in every Colorado county and city with 50,000+ residents,” according to a November 2021 report from Denverbased consulting rm Root Policy Research. e report also said that, as of June 2021, Colorado’s overall housing inventory was 13% of what is needed for a functioning sales market.
“Quite honestly, we just don’t have enough housing, whether it’s a ordable or otherwise,” said Kelly Milliman, city council member for Littleton’s District 4 and a member of the city’s housing task force. “It’s really vitally important to the overall health of our community going forward.” e sentiment is similar for leaders in the neighboring cities of Englewood and Sheridan. ere, o cials said a ordable home options used to be more common.
“For the people that can afford it, they have lots of choices in the metro area,” said Brad Power, Englewood’s director of community development. “But we’re starting to see more gaps with people who are on the other side of the income spectrum.”
Devin Granberry, city manager for Sheridan, said higher home costs have driven workers out of what he described as a historically bluecollar area.
“It leads to a very transient pipeline of citizenry and workforce,” he said. “ ere’s no sense of belonging, there’s no sense of ownership, and all of those are negative impacts on a community, the well-being of a community.”
Searching for a home
After leaving the house he owned near Houston, Texas, more than a decade ago, Laney knew buying a home in Denver would be a nearimpossible feat.
He was making good money at a medical diagnostics company and had been able to purchase a brandnew home in a Houston suburb for less than $150,000. But his mental health was su ering and he knew he needed a change. With friends living in Colorado at the time, Laney decided to move more than 1,000 miles north to Denver.
With his fresh start came the opportunity to dive into a longtime passion: wine. He took classes to become a sommelier — a trained wine professional. He sold wine to businesses across the metro area, worked part-time at a cozy wine bar and restaurant in the heart of Littleton’s historic downtown, and eventually landed a full-time job at Jake’s.
Laney settled on wherever he could nd the most a ordable apartment — something hovering around $1,000 per month, in places around Denver. e ones he found in Littleton were too run-down. As rents around the region rose, Laney moved ve times in six years.
“During this whole process I knew I wanted a house,” Laney said. “I wanted something that was my own, and it’s hard to build a home in an apartment, especially when you keep moving.”
Laney’s experiences came as Littleton residents expressed less con dence that their city was a ordable. From 2012 to 2022, residents who cited a ordable cost of living as a reason for living in Littleton declined from 30% to 14%, according to biennial city-issued surveys of hundreds of residents. Over those same years, residents who said affordable housing and rental rates were a reason for living in the city went from 20% to 9%.
Laney said he worked, saved and kept his spending habits to a minimum during those years, staying laser-focused on his ultimate prize. Credit-card debt from college “really destroyed a lot of opportunities,” he said, but he kept “working, working, working.”
Even though Laney estimates he was making about $48,000 yearly, he says he was far short of what he needed for a down payment on even the least expensive of homes in Littleton.
He wasn’t alone. A 2020 analysis from Denver-based contractor Root Policy showed that individuals who earned $29,000 to $95,000 yearly in the metro area could not a ord the average price of a home, which was nearly $420,000 that year.
“It’s a pretty serious situation,” said Corey Reitz, executive director of Littleton’s housing authority, South Metro Housing Options. “ e list of folks who can’t continue to live here continues to grow.” at list, according to Root’s analysis, includes workers in health
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