An Opportunity to Connect Newcomers with Housing

Guest Post from a Lakewood Resident and former Denver Landlord

This activity by Denver City/County needs be known by all. Whatever your perspective or opinion, you should at least be aware of what city governments are now doing in general, the new vocabulary by which they are now framing it,  and with information they demand of you. Specifically by Denver…..

Below is an actual email received by a Denver landlord with an active Single Family Home listing.

Receipt of this letter from the City/Cty of Denver represents them trolling active rental listings (even long-term rental landlords in Denver now must be licensed, in case you did not know), & applicants for long-term rentals.

The subject line of the email from the City and County of Denver is: “An Opportunity to Connect NEWCOMERS* with Housing”*

For as long as I have ever been alive, a property owner or landlord could face legal consequences if they ever leased to an undocumented foreigner– someone without a green card or legal residency status.  In Denver itself, specific neighborhoods have been harmed by those who rented as 2-4 people then brought  10,11, 12+ illegals in to live in  one 1-2 br home.

Now it seems, Denver City/County are going the opposite direction.  Denver is actually encouraging a type of discrimination against locals by asking landlords/property owners to rent instead to ‘newcomers’. (the new nomenclature*).  Already in short-supply, especially at the lower end of the rate spectrum, this effectively takes away long-term rentals  from local workers and citizens.

Remember, not too long ago Denver decided that anyone renting residentially in Denver must REGISTER.  So, all Denver landlords are now required to get licenses, identifying themselves, providing all sorts of detailed info.  One realtor told me it took four hours to comply with this bureaucracy.

Now, Denver is using the info gathered from those registrations and  ´asking’ landlords of the most affordable housing available (already in short supply) to lease to illegals with no docs—oops, I mean ‘newcomers’. The property owner has NO  ability to know the background of such persons as they would per standard practices, have no way of being assured  such persons are not criminals, violent, drug runners, terrorists or simply don’t have a bad rental history. The ‘newcomers’ on the other hand know there are no consequences for any damages they cause the landlord.

Of concern aka Shortsighted ‘feelgood’ decisions by Denver City Council:

1. As the recipient of this letter asked, “Is the next step to make leasing to ‘newcomers’ mandatory” ?
2. Does Denver NOT see the  supreme irony & hypocrisy here? American property owners must register all sorts of personal information, be on the record with government entities and pay for licenses just to let out their residential property (long-term), so that the city can use that info to troll them to request that they lease to people with absolutely NO LEGAL DOCUMENTATION or BACKGROUND CHECKS, no legal residency status, perhaps no income and cannot be background checked once the city/state creates documents for them!  Local taxpayers/citizens must be background checked, registered, screened, pay, to lease to foreigners who have no background checks, no screening, no financial qualifications.  Would you call that irony or hypocrisy—or maybe just cognitive dissonance?
3. Who pays if the illegal parties that move in damage the property, move additional unknown people in, perhaps over the safe occupancy limit,  conduct illegal activities in the unit, cause a landlord to be cited and/or sued by anyone for what these undocumented, non-background checked newcomers do? 
4. This takes away what little affordable housing remains from legal residents, legal immigrants and USA citizens.
5. This will LEAD TO FURTHER and PERMANENT LOSS of residential rental inventory managed by independent, local, mom+pop Landlords, resulting in a long-term impact of even higher rent rates upon the very people that are struggling most. Already, independent landlords who remain in Denver despite recent encroachments on their rights,  are talking about divesting/selling off their properties, never again to invest under all the risks this Denver initiated behavior brings with it. 

Does this relate to Lakewood? One cannot but wonder, observing current Lakewood council comments and recent decisions,  is Lakewood next to adopt this Denver behavior? Such would be no surprise, would it? The letter evokes the same tone that Lakewood City Manager Hodgson brought back from her meeting with Denver city/Adam Paul about Lakewood being  a welcoming and a good neighbor.  Such desire was loudly echoed by most of the current Council.

*File this under FROG IN THE POT syndrome. The no longer allowed vocabulary of “Illegal Aliens” became “Aliens” became “Undocumented Residents/Persons” became “Immigrants” (an insult to those who followed the rules), this year became “Migrants” (an insult to much needed legal migrant workers and farmers growing our food) and is now being presented as ‘newcomers’—most likely so they can deny and accuse if we share their actions publicly.

“When you take from legal, taxpaying, working citizens, themselves stressed financially, to give to those who do not respect the rule of law and live off those working citizens of that community against whom you are discriminating, you create prejudice, discord and ultimately violence from both sides.”

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THE LETTER DENVER CITY/COUNTY IS SENDING TO LANDLORDS:

Subject: An opportunity to connect newcomers with housing

March 5, 2024

Dear stakeholders in our local residential rental property industry, 

You are receiving this email because you have an active or pending residential rental property license with the City and County of Denver.

The City and County of Denver has long prided itself on being a welcoming city, coming together and supporting one another in times of crises, and supporting each other as much as needed. With almost 40,000 migrants arriving in the Mile High City since 2022, the city’s ongoing efforts include working closely with the community to find solutions that would more efficiently and effectively support our newcomers. 

To this end, we are working to assess how many licensed rental property owners and those with pending applications are interested in assisting the city in connecting newcomers with stable housing. 

Read the whole letter here

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