Frequently Asked Questions
Is it realistic to believe we can address our complex housing challenges?
We think so! It will take a step-by-step approach. It will take a lot of work and collaboration and cooperation, which is true of any worthwhile project. There’s definitely a whole spectrum of needs out there (as depicted by the above graph). But we’re convinced, if more of us knew how much some of our neighbors are suffering — due to cost-of-living increases, stagnant wages, market indifference and other forces, and through no fault of their own — we could meet our current housing crisis, together, and then some. Because that’s how Broomfield works when we’re at our best.
Who leads the Task Force? Is it resident-led or city council-led?
See our About Us page for more details about the Task Force, which is definitely resident-led, NOT city council-led. We’ve been out and about in the community since our campaign began over the winter, meeting with local churches and clubs and community groups and regularly attending city council meetings. We also helped organize the well-attended Jan. 30 event “Room For Everyone: From Housing Crisis to Housing Justice” hosted by local faith communities.
In the months ahead, we plan to continue our public and face-to-face engagement with our fellow Broomfielders, and to post events on an upcoming page here on our website.
I’ve heard about a housing survey and a housing poll. Are they the same thing or different?
They’re two distinct, but complementary efforts. The Task Force and the Broomfield Housing Solutions Forum (BHSF) are asking local residents for their feedback on housing through this informal community survey, which was released in early Spring 2025. It takes about 10 minutes to complete, so please fill it out when you get a chance! We want to incorporate as much citizen feedback into our effort as possible as we move forward. So, that’s the survey.
The poll references a scientific poll we helped create in partnership with the City and County of Broomfield and Broomfield-based Magellan Strategies. It asks likely Broomfield voters whether or not they would support the ballot measures we’ve proposed as ways to generate new, ongoing local revenue to meet our most urgent housing-related needs. The poll went out at the end of April 2025 and will be completed in May 2025. Poll results will determine whether the ballot measures we have proposed are “viable enough” to appear on Broomfield’s election ballot. So, in that sense, our next steps as a campaign are in the hands of likely local voters.
What is the Task Force’s relationship to the Broomfield Housing Solutions Forum (BHSF)?
The Task Force participates in but is separate from BHSF, an informal coalition of community organizations and individuals working toward housing solutions for Broomfield residents earning 80% AMI (Area Median Income) or less. BHSF participants include nonprofits, for-profits, faith-based groups, government representatives, and concerned residents.
BHSF meets monthly and has a small coordinating committee, but the Forum itself is not a formal entity. It intentionally has no bylaws, budget or fiscal sponsor, making it ineligible to apply for or receive or manage grant funds. It’s simply a space for collaboration, coordination, advocacy, strategizing and idea-sharing.
However, one significant, major outcome of BHSF to this point is “Housing For All: A Collaborative Housing Strategy for Broomfield 2025+,” the first-ever Broomfield-wide plan for how to corporately address our challenges across the housing spectrum. Please check it out and encourage city leaders to join BHSF partners in formally adopting it!
Why is your site URL BroomfieldHousingFund.org?
In light of available URLs, we felt it was relevant to refer to the “Housing Stability Passthrough Fund” that we hope will be created as a result of our successful, voter-approved ballot campaign. And it’s shorter than broomfieldhousingstabilitytaskforce.whatever.
How do you justify these proposed tax increases when water rates and property taxes increased recently? Our pocketbooks are already tight!
We pay those bills and feel the squeeze, too, so we definitely understand frustrations around recent rate increases! We considered many other vehicles for generating ongoing new funding, but for various reasons chose not to pursue them. Alternatives that we set aside include a mill levy increase, property taxes, lodging taxes, “sin” taxes on things like marijuana and sugary beverage purchases, real estate transaction fees/taxes, “head taxes” or occupational privilege taxes on employees and employers for incomes above a certain threshold, and “social housing” taxes on income-earners above a certain threshold.
What we’re encouraged by is this — there is precedent in Broomfield for a citizen-prompted, common-good-related sales tax increase campaign. Broomfield’s current 0.25 percent open space sales tax, passed in 1994, brings in $3-6 million per year. That tax provides funding in perpetuity to secure and maintain the open spaces and trails that bring so much value to our community. Improved housing stability would do the same and more!
Why did you choose a “regressive” mechanism as your primary way to generate funds? Doesn’t a sales tax increase disproportionately burden people at the lower end of the economic spectrum?
Yes, sales taxes are regressive in nature, but we hope to incorporate into our proposed measure “exemptions” on necessities like food, medicine, prescriptions and feminine hygiene products.
Would a sales tax increase keep consumers from buying items here in Broomfield?
No, we don’t think so. A 0.5% sales tax increase would move us from one of the lowest rates in the area to somewhere in the middle, so our rate would still be very comparable to and competitive with adjacent communities. If we’re able to run our sales tax measure on the fall ballot and it passes, the cost to consumers would be 50 additional cents on every $100 purchase, and a portion of the overall cost would be borne by non-residents shopping here.
When would annual revenue generated by your proposed ballot measures be collected and distributed?
Consistently available funding for critical housing-related programs and services would truly be a gamechanger for on-the-ground agencies in Broomfield (and more importantly, the residents they serve)! If referred to the ballot and passed by voters, the measure/s would take effect in January 2026. Revenue would be collected in 2026. Grant applications and awards would go out in mid-to-late 2026, so that funds would be available for use in 2027, and so on.
How would revenue generated by these proposed ballot measures be overseen and distributed?
The revenue from both of our proposed ballot measures would be collected by the City and County of Broomfield (CCOB) and held in a special “Housing Stability Passthrough Fund.” The details of its administration would be determined at a later date, if and when our proposed measures are referred to Broomfield’s election ballot. Various approaches to ensure transparency and oversight have been put in place for similar measures in our area and throughout Colorado. Likely, a special oversight committee of local housing experts, stakeholders and residents would be involved, and the whole process would be overseen by non-profit and city partners, including city council.
As to specifics, the Housing Stability Passthrough Fund’s structure would likely be modeled after and build on an already established non-profit grant-making process already in place between the CCOB’s Department of Human Services and the Broomfield Community Foundation. (For details, see this CCOB City Council, Aug. 13, 2024, Agenda, item 7D, click “Attachments” and then the “Memo for Property Taxes” PDF.)
Who would be eligible to receive Housing Stability Passthrough Fund monies awarded to local non-profits? How will there be accountability for funds received?
Funds generated by a successful Broomfield Housing Stability campaign would be awarded to local non-profits and earmarked for residents according to their level of vulnerability and need, likely based on their AMI or level of cost-burdened-ness and/or other appropriate measures. All grant recipients would be required to submit regular reports to the oversight committee referenced above about how funds are used, how effective their programs and services were, and how they plan to improve and adjust in future should they receive further funding.
Who would benefit from the stronger safety net resulting from these measures?
Seniors who live on fixed incomes and struggle to pay for cost of living increases.
Single parents who struggle to pay their rent.
Young families who struggle to afford their housing and their childcare, which can be as costly as monthly rent or mortgage payments.
Residents who aren’t sure they can afford to stay in this, their long-term community.
Adult members of our IDD (Intellectually and Developmentally Disabled) community, who rely on their parents for housing and who will have no place to go once their parents are unable to provide for them.
Young graduates who grew up here but can’t afford a place of their own due to the high cost of housing and a lack of starter home options.
Professionals like teachers, veterans, first responders, and health care workers, who work here and are critical to our community, but who often cannot afford to live here.
Individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
Local property owners who would get consistent income and support from the advent of a new local housing voucher program.
On-the-ground non-profits who desperately need additional staff and resources to assist the steadily increasing numbers of Broomfielders who come to them for help.
Our wider community as a whole — all things considered, housing-stable households are able to contribute significantly more time, talent and treasure to our economy, schools, civic organizations and community than housing-unstable households, who are forced to spend most of their time, talent and treasure just surviving. A housing stable community is better for everyone.
Why isn’t your campaign addressing other important housing-related needs, such as zoning, policy, homeownership, the lack of living wages paid by employers, or the regulation of unfettered market forces, such as when hedge funds buy up homes in neighborhoods like “First Filing” and drive up prices and costs for everyone?
Broomfield’s cross-spectrum housing challenges are many and absolutely need to be addressed. Our current ballot campaign is focusing on our community’s MOST URGENT housing-related needs first, because residents on the verge of housing instability and homelessness need “a hand up” right now. At the same time, this is a first step in a multi-step journey toward housing stability for all in Broomfield. We want to be proactive, not reactive by conducting our ballot campaign now before our crisis gets even worse. The longer it goes unaddressed, the more Broomfielders will be added to the thousands who are already struggling.
Much good work to address this solvable, humanitarian crisis has been and is being done by local, on-the-ground non-profit agencies such as Broomfield FISH, Senior Resources Board, Almost Home, the Refuge, FRIENDS of Broomfield, Flatirons Habitat for Humanity, A Precious Child, and many others. But those agencies simply don’t have enough financial or staff resources to meet the steadily growing needs they’re seeing from local residents. We need to respond to the current tidal wave of need we’re seeing, and we need to respond now.
You use a lot of technical housing terms and acronyms on your site? What do they mean?
AMI — This is a commonly used housing measure and stands for “Area Median Income.” Remember, “median” refers to the exact middle number if all incomes earned by Broomfielders were lined up in a row. As of 2024, Broomfield’s AMI for a household of three was $117,400.
Affordable/Affordability — This word can mean different things to different people. When we use it, we’re primarily referring to units with housing costs that do not exceed the HUD recommended 30 percent of their occupants’ income. That rule-of-thumb percentage is an estimate of housing stability in that it estimates how much a household should reasonably allocate on housing expenses so as to be able to afford everything else, like food, medical care, childcare, transportation, entertainment, miscellaneous, savings, etc.
BHSF — Broomfield Housing Solutions Forum, a participation-based coalition of more than 40 non-profits, faith communities, government agencies, and other local stakeholders serving local households earning up to 80 percent AMI.
Cost-Burdened — Another common housing stability measure, referring to households that spend more than the recommended 30 percent of their income on housing (rent/mortgage, utilities, etc.).
Moderately Cost-Burdened — Households spending between 30-50 percent of their income on housing. These households are considered to be at risk of housing instability.
Severely Cost-burdened — Households spending more than 50 percent of their income on housing. These households are considered to be at risk of homelessness.
HUD — The federal government’s Department of Housing and Urban Development.
I’d like to help with your campaign. How can I get started?
We would love your help and involvement! Visit our “Contact” page to send us an email.