Limiting affordability: historical housing decline and new-build gentrification in downtown colorado springs

Like most American cities, Colorado Springs saw a decline of housing and population in its inner-city neighborhoods as suburbanization became the dominant housing model from the mid-twentieth century through 2010. At the same time, affordable units in the downtown were not built as land developers responded to market forces that generated larger profits from stand-alone suburban houses. This paper uses a historical GIS database to record and map 3432 houses that were destroyed or converted to some other land use in the city’s downtown and discusses the reasons for this loss. The data reveal that the African-American community was particularly hard hit with nearly 70 percent of their houses destroyed, abandoned, or otherwise removed. The loss of these traditional neighborhoods contributes to a lack of affordable housing and the removal of lower income residents, along with a decline in urban vitality, historical character, and mixed uses in the urban core. Within the past decade there has been renewed investment in downtown housing on lots abandoned over the previous decades, a form of new-build gentrification that further exacerbates the demographic shift to wealthier residents.