LAUNCH Longmont Housing Platforms Local Responses to Housing Crisis

Event promoting advocacy in partnership with Strong Towns

LAUNCH Longmont Housing will host Strong Town’s founder and author Chuck Marohn, for Colorado’s only stop on a national book tour for his newly released book, Escaping the Housing Trap. The book covers the tension between housing as a financial product and housing as a shelter and discusses the solutions to help resolve the housing crisis.

Doors open on September 12 at 6:00 p.m. with the program beginning at 6:30 p.m. at Heart of Longmont Church (350 11th Ave. Longmont, CO 80501) with a workshop for developers and government officials the following week. Tickets are $5 with proceeds benefiting the Wesley Townhomes, an innovative collaboration between The Inn Between and Heart of Longmont to convert a parking lot to affordable homes for families and are available HERE

Chuck Marohn’s talk will include direct applications of new planning concepts in local communities, Q&A, as well as a book signing. Following the talk there will be a tabling event for local and regional nonprofits offering information and opportunities to get involved.

Some highlights of the discussion will include:

• How the tension between housing as an investment and housing as shelter impacts where and how people live,

• How regulations designed to facilitate the rapid growth of cities end up stagnating neighborhoods and creating artificial housing shortages, and

• Where cities can effectively intervene to make their housing market more locally responsive, broadly increasing affordability without participating in the boom and bust cycle of the broader housing market.

LAUNCH is partnering with a range of Front Range organizations advocating for housing affordability including Heart of Longmont, NuSo Boulder, Strong Towns Fort Collins, Strong Denver, YIMBY Fort Collins, NoCo Housing Now, and Prosper Longmont in order to make this event a reality. As the only planned stop in Colorado, this event presents a unique opportunity for the Boulder County, Metro Denver, and the Northern Front Range communities. With this talk, the aim is to empower regional communities with the knowledge that escalating housing costs can be managed by local policies and public involvement