Can’t speak with confidence about local conditions in Denver, but they didn’t see the coverage in 2020 that Portland got.

We still see sky high insurance requirements for new builds even for projects way out in the suburbs. Out of town folks hear Portland get scare and paint it with a broad brush

Couple all of that with higher interest rates, declining population, low wage growth, and low rent growth folks don’t wanna invest their money here as much as they did 5 years ago. They could make a higher profit somewhere else and so they invest there instead.

Out of town larger equity investors for multifamily devs remain skittish about Portland. The coverage of the 2020 protests scared a lot of folks away even though what was in the news was often a distorted picture. Local pols dunking on the city the last several years hasn’t exactly helped either.

I view it more as an economic development incentive to promote the redevelopment of the York District/Montgomery Park area as opposed to a transit connectivity project (which of course it still is).

Pittsburgh, PA. BNY Melon tower on the left, Gulf tower in the center, US Steel Tower on the right.

single stair doesn't solve this problem - but it can provide far better housing - family sized homes that are highly livable even in small units.

our larch lab policy brief hits on the multitude of reasons.

www.larchlab.com/point-access...

US building and planning codes are fundamentally at odds with the very things that we need to meet housing crisis X climate crisis:

more affordable homes.
more livable homes.
more climate adaptive homes.
more family-friendly homes.
more multigenerational. commonality-oriented. etc etc

Local governments, especially in high cost areas, will need to do more. Any funding spent on keeping people in their homes will be far more cost effective and humane than criminalizing homelessness.

Most of all, the need to build more housing at all income levels is even more paramount.

Combine this with the next administration’s rejection of Housing First, preference for criminalizing homelessness, and lack of interest in funding more affordable housing—the crisis we see on our streets is likely only to get worse.