Housing needs are a big discussion right now. Affordable, Fair Market Housing, Low-income, permanent supportive housing, Section 8 Vouches, these terms are being used regularly and can be confusing.

Affordable Housing, as defined by HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development), is a house for which the occupant(s) is/are paying no more than 30 percent of his or her income for gross housing costs, including utilities.

Market Housing, as the name implies, is driven by what the market of a given area will bear. In Greeley, the market has seen a significant increase. The City of Greeley project that 2024 rents will increase 3.1% over 2023. Currently, the average 2 bedroom apartment in Greeley is $1617/mo. This means a family must...

Homelessness seems to be everywhere right now. Nightly news, daily papers, emails and on the streets. Photos of people on the streets, in tent camps and in food kitchens. It would appear that this is a sudden, unexpected social issue. It is not. Homelessness has been a part of our society for generations, originally identified in the 1870s.

In the 1950s & 1960s, homelessness declined so significantly that researchers were predicting it would disappear by 1970. Instead, during the 1980s the economic recession, dramatic federal housing program cutbacks and deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill skyrocketed the numbers. The top causes of homelessness among families were: (1) lack of affordable housing, (2) unemployment, (3) poverty, and (4) low wages, in that order....