Q&A: Melat Kiros on the ‘affordability crisis’ in her hometown

Kiros, a 29-year-old Democratic Socialist, is the Democratic nominee for Colorado’s 1st Congressional District, which includes Denver. She defeated 15-term incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette in the Democratic primary. The district is the most Democratic in the state, meaning Kiros is heavily favored to win in the general election.

Kiros was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and grew up in Denver. Kiros’ campaign to represent her hometown in Congress has focused on her community’s affordability issues in transit, housing, health care and child care. 

A recent poll conducted by the Colorado Health Foundation found that 85% of those surveyed said the rising cost of living in Colorado was either an extremely or very serious problem. More than three-quarters of those surveyed said affordability might call into question whether they can continue to call Colorado home.

Ahead of the midterm elections in November, Rocky Mountain PBS is interviewing community members and leaders across the state to create a picture of how rising prices and costs of living are impacting Coloradans, and what elected officials plan to do about it.

Kiros sat down with Rocky Mountain PBS to discuss affordability as she enters the final stretch before Election Day.

This conversation was edited for length and clarity.

Rocky Mountain PBS: Let's just jump right into it. Affordability was a huge part of your campaign. Talk to me a little bit about your experience living here in Denver. 

Melat Kiros: I think my experience is one that is really informed by how I grew up watching my dad and my mom come here with literally nothing to their name and be able to effectively achieve what is known as the American dream, right? They worked multiple jobs that put my dad through pharmacy school and he was able to buy homes and send his daughters to college.

Those opportunities are no longer available to young people, even if they do the right thing and go to college and get a degree. The jobs aren't there as much as they were before, and they're not paying nearly as much as they should be if we kept up with productivity right now. It's just really difficult for people to get by, let alone thrive, which is what the American dream is supposed to be about.

And so, living in this city, one of the most expensive cities in the country, and also having seen the transition from when I was a kid and like how much Denver has changed, a lot of cities are kind of dealing with this reckoning where a lot of the people who make the city what it is and make it run in the way that it does, can't even afford to live here anymore.

And I just don't think our politics are tuned in enough to that crisis, and we need more people who actually have the lived experience with it, who are going to have the level of urgency required to meet this moment. 

RMPBS: I see a lot of similarities to Tampa, which is where I’m from. A lot of rapid growth. Do you think that affordability issues are an inevitable part of that?

MK: You know, I think it matters what kind of growth we’re talking about. Growth for the sake of growth isn't always a good thing. The thing that grows exponentially without caution at all is in many other spaces, considered cancerous.

I think we should be focused on a sustainable kind of growth. The kind of growth that keeps in mind the people who are here right now and deserve to be able to live in the cities that they've grown up in and work in to be able to afford and thrive, while also making space for folks to move in as well.

I think the thing that's prevented us from actually addressing the affordability crisis is understanding that growth has really just been a misnomer for this really relentless pursuit of, just profit, and profit that would come at the expense of the working people of this city.

So it's not about being anti-growth for me. It's just about being sustainable and how we grow.

RMPBS: What do you see as the biggest issue related to affordability, specifically here in Denver?

MK: Housing. I mean, it is the foundation upon which everything else rests upon; if we don't have shelter and the security of knowing that there's a safe and warm place for us to sleep in at night. I think it's really important for folks who maybe haven't experienced housing insecurity to take a beat and just think about how would I go about my day if I didn't know that I had a safe place to sleep at night? 

The capacity that it robs you of to be productive and to go about any other thing that you might care about is next to impossible. And it's why we are continuing to face this crisis, because we're not actually thinking about the gravity of that which we're facing right now.

RMPBS: Talk to me about plans for housing. Walk me through a little bit of what you're hoping for.

MK: I'm a big proponent of Housing First, which just resets this narrative and makes it clear that we have to just get people housing. That is the number one job that we have. And all other things are tangential to that specific purpose that we have to be focused on. 

Once people are in housing, and safe, and sheltered, and warm … then we can talk about what wraparound services need to be available for folks to make sure that they can get back up on their feet so that they can provide that housing for themselves.

Rent stabilization is a huge part of that, as well as making sure that we are not pricing people out of homes that they've already lived in for the purpose of this relentless pursuit of profit. And that's not to say that, you know, you can't profit off of building homes and all the things, right? 

But when we're talking about shelter and just making sure our most vulnerable communities have a safe and warm place to sleep in at night, the profit motive should not even be a part of that conversation.

If you want to go and build luxury housing and luxury homes, go for it. Have at it. But at the base level, that's where my concern is. And that profit motive is singularly responsible for preventing us and providing the kind of housing that we need.

RMPBS: I'm assuming profit is your answer as to what is driving up the cost of living in Denver?

MK: You know, I think if you're only concerned about making a profit and there's always going to be, you know, folks that can afford to hit whatever costs you're requiring, and you have a city like Denver that is growing and thriving and becoming more exciting, you are inevitably going to drive out the people who have always lived in this city and can no longer afford those prices, because we are not seeing wages rising.

Making it so that these rent increases aren't necessarily impossible, but are regulated, and that it is happening at a pace that is reasonable for the actual tenant and doesn't inhibit the developer and the building's ability to meet their costs. 

It's not a zero sum game. I really, sincerely believe that this is something we can figure out. The problem is that the people that are actually making these decisions really only care about making the profit, and if that's the singular motive. This is the inevitable consequence of it.