Now, you may have missed this one (you’d be forgiven if you had), but last month the snappily badged Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (happily shortened to OEDIT) announced a new priority target for Proposition 123. I can almost see you reaching for Google as I type that…but bear with me a moment, all will become clear. Proposition 123 is a Colorado initiative, and it created an Affordable Housing Fund which does exactly what it says on the tin. For good reason too, because just like 150 Million of their fellow citizens worldwide, a sizeable proportion of Colorado’s good folk are either homeless or in severe housing need. On any basis that’s a shocking fact, especially when you keep in mind the United States is the richest country on earth, so it does no credit to anyone that 653,104 of its citizens are currently homeless.
Priming the pump
That’s precisely the issue Proposition 123 is intended to deal with, and it’s been doing it pretty well. However esoteric and obscure it might sound, without a scintilla of doubt Proposition 123 is a very good thing indeed (www.leg.colorado.gov).
In January this year more than $25 Million in funding was released to create 1,380 affordable homes across Colorado. The money will initially be used by local government agencies, and the equivalent of UK housing associations, to buy up and preserve land, with building works scheduled to start later this year (although some of it is on foot already). As a result, for the first time in more than a generation, some of the poorest, most financially distressed Coloradans will be able to live in their own home. And that’s just Colorado…many of the other States in the Union are either doing the same thing, or on the verge of creating their own equivalent of Proposition 123.
And that has to be a good thing too.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the newly minted Labour Government could rise to the same challenge here? Especially as the previous Administration slashed the Housing Grant for affordable housing by more than 60% in the four years to 2020 (www.thebureauinvestigates.com), which meant, on average, that an applicant for “partner funding” was likely to receive just £20,000 under the scheme (or 14% of the final build cost). That’s less than the price of a new car. As a direct result only 45,649 affordable homes were built in the UK last year (www.nhbc.co.uk), while in the same period 271,000 people were homeless in England alone (123,000 of them children), and that figure’s been rising remorselessly ever since (england.shelter.org.uk). It all feels like too little, too late…but if Keir Starmer requires some fresh thinking, I can’t do better than refer him to Proposition 123’s website (see above Keir).
And here’s another interesting fact about what’s been going on in Colorado…
Building affordable homes better
In addition to the existing pump priming, Colorado’s State Government announced in February that an additional $38 Million would be allocated under its Innovative Housing Incentive Program (another snappy name…right?...well, maybe not). Anyway, this money will go straight to eight Modular Housing companies, and the funds will not only create 1,280 new jobs, but also generate an additional 4,755 affordable housing units on top of the 1,380 already in the pipeline. In other words, in less than a year, Colorado’s focused affordable housing programme will create more than 13% of the entire stock equivalent produced in the UK last year (and, as if you needed reminding (I know you don’t), Colorado’s population is just 7% that of the UK). If they can do it, why can’t we…
And that kick up in Coloradan delivery rates is interesting too, because it is firmly rooted in an ongoing commitment to Modular Construction.
Modular homes can be produced more than 30% faster than their traditional bricks and mortar counterparts, up to 40% less expensively, and they’re all round better for the environment too. That’s why modular technologies have become such a cornerstone of any public and private programme looking to push back against homelessness worldwide, and that’s why they’re already an integral part of OEDIT’s ambitions.
Last month, at the Housing Innovation Summit, Colorado’s Governor Jared Polis announced that Proposition 123 funding will in future “prioritize cost effective modular housing projects… developing and advancing innovative construction methods that can help make housing quicker to build, more cost-effective, and more sustainable”. He’s absolutely right about that..
I wonder if Keir Starmer’s listening?
Modulex (www.modulexglobal.com)
Modulex is a ConstrucTech Company working at the vanguard of emerging global construction: making use of 3D volumetric steel modular techniques, and harnessing the power of emerging technologies, including AI, Blockchain and IoT: meeting burgeoning housing and infrastructure needs across the globe, and delivering at pace with optimal cost efficiencies.
Executive overview
Labour campaigned on a programme of Change in the UK, and they won: so, when it comes to the compelling challenges of homelessness, why not look abroad for some lessons?
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