Most can agree that Forest City has historically not done enough to keep up with its original low income housing and diversity goals. The developer has continually added high income housing and even apartment complexes meant for those with higher incomes. “Forest City is well behind it’s originally stated socioeconomic diversity goals,” said SUN CAB member Tony McGovern. “We have continually spoken with them and tried to work with them to see what can be done. They usually just tell us things like, ‘we’ll get there,’ without ever doing anything about it.”
Forest City is now taking advantage of a recent situation within the criminal justice system. “We read an article recently regarding the overpopulation of Denver’s prisons,” said Forest City Spokesperson Janelle Ayers. “We figured, there’s got to be some way we can take advantage of that.” Ayers and Forest City decided to correct what they have been calling an error all along. “The census data includes the jail population,” said Ayers. “But, we have never included the jails, and those it houses, as low income or income qualified housing. At times, there are 1,400 inmates at that facility, of which are definitely in low-income units. And with that number spiking right now, it definitely makes our numbers better.”
McGovern does not appreciate Forest City’s recent census adjustment. “The inmates are not a part of the community,” said McGovern. “It is not only unfair to count them as low income residents; it’s absolutely insulting to the progress we are trying to make in regards to income-qualified homes for people.” For its part, Forest City continues to ignore any and all committees involved in diversity and housing. “We see this as an error that was simply corrected,” said Ayers. “Had we noticed this ten years ago, we would have been using it in our statistics all along. I just hope the criminal justice system keeps pumping people into the system so we can keep our numbers high.” ]]>