The draft Regional Housing Strategy
DRCOG is excited to share the draft Regional Housing Strategy! A broad range of stakeholders and community leaders came together to contribute and support the strategy's development over the past year and a half. The DRCOG Board of Directors will consider the Regional Housing Strategy during the October 21, 2026, Board meeting.
Provide feedback on the draft Regional Housing Strategy.
What is the Regional Housing Strategy?
The DRCOG Regional Housing Strategy builds upon the findings of the Regional Housing Needs Assessment to develop a coordinated, data-driven approach to addressing shared housing challenges across the Denver region. It focuses on aligning local policies, community needs and regional goals around housing affordability and connectivity.
The goal is to identify where regional collaboration can lead to meaningful action and to learn from each community about local initiatives making a difference. By engaging with government agencies, housing providers, advocates and funding institutions, the strategy will:
- Highlight shared priorities.
- Identify cross-jurisdictional opportunities.
- Support actionable strategies that reflect both local needs and regional goals.
Why this matters
Community
Housing plays a vital role in the lives of young adults, families and older adults. Homes and communities shape our lives every day.
Affordability
Whether it’s an affordable apartment, a place to start a family or a smaller home for aging in place, more people are finding it difficult to find housing to meet their needs.
Diversity
Communities across our region are unique, but they share common housing challenges. From affordable apartments to family homes and options for aging in place, our communities need more housing overall and a broader range of choices.
Quality of life
Housing is at the center of many important issues — from improving health, being more climate resilient and creating more equitable communities to reducing traffic, building livable places and supporting economic vitality.
The Regional Housing Strategy process
The development of the Regional Housing Strategy took a phased approach and built directly off the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, which establishes the scale and scope of the region's housing needs. The first phase focused on building key partnerships, gathering community insights, and refining regional priorities to lay the foundation for the strategy. The second phase involved translating and drawing from all the insights gathered throughout stakeholder engagement into the Regional Housing Strategy's goals and objectives, identifying best practices, and shaping strategic initiatives. The final phase consisted of refining and validating the components of the strategy, expanding on implementation and mobilization of the strategy, and building momentum for action.
Resources developed during the Regional Housing Strategy's development include the environmental scan and the best practices research memo which can be found the on the Regional Housing Strategy resources page.
Stakeholder engagement
Throughout development of the Regional Housing Strategy, DRCOG collaborated closely with local government staff, city and county managers, elected officials, housing authorities, housing developers, community organizations, and service providers. Through interviews, focus groups, and partner workshops, stakeholders shared the regional goals the strategy should focus on, how the strategy can support cross-jurisdictional collaboration, and how DRCOG can support member governments in addressing their own housing goals.
Steering Committee
Elected officials and leaders from across the DRCOG region provided strategic direction to ensure the Regional Housing Strategy reflected and responded to local needs and priorities, and models of regional collaboration and action. The group’s members also served as liaisons to other decision makers, including the DRCOG Board of Directors.
Advisory Group
The advisory group brought together key partners with a range of perspectives and technical expertise to help guide the work and address the region’s shared housing challenges. The advisory group met over the course of the process to provide feedback and input on the Regional Housing Strategy’s development and how to put the final plan into action.
Working together
- Every community in our region is different, but we’re all facing similar housing challenges. It’s more challenging than ever to create the homes we need to meet the diverse housing needs in our communities, including homes of different sizes, at different price points, in the places where people can easily get to where they need to go.
- Change is inevitable. Let’s deliberately shape the changes in the region to create a better future for everyone.
- There is much to learn from one another. Local initiatives have helped preserve communities offer valuable insights and collaboration among planners, builders, residents and finance experts can strengthen problem-solving efforts.
- Working together can make a difference. Regional progress is possible when communities collaborate to find solutions for shared challenges.
Get involved!
We are in this together.
Whether you are a policymaker, a planner, a builder, a service provider or a passionate community partner, we each have roles to play in creating a shared vision, developing workable solutions and implementing the change we want to see.