Poll: Denver Residents Want Denser Housing Throughout City

The cost of housing has long been a top concern for Denver residents, and a recent poll shows they’re ready to try some new ideas.

The study commissioned by YIMBY Denver, a volunteer-led nonprofit advocating for more housing and better transportation, found that Denver residents are strongly in favor of changing zoning laws to allow denser neighborhoods and taller buildings.

“It's hard to overstate just how important it is for Denver to course correct on our housing shortage,” says Ryan Keeney, president of YIMBY Denver. (YIMBY stands for Yes, in My Backyard.)

According to the YIMBY Denver poll results, 70 percent of Denver residents want city and state laws changed to make it easier to build new homes. YIMBY Denver’s results are consistent with a recent study that determined housing costs in Denver grew 25.2 percent from 2020 to 2024; in conversations with public officials, residents consistently name the cost of rent and housing as top concerns.

Keeney attended a meeting on Mayor Mike Johnston’s upcoming Vibrant Denver bond package and says housing was a major topic of discussion there. But this is the first formal poll on specific policy ideas, such as streamlining the housing permitting process and allowing buildings up to five stories near Denver parks.

According to Keeney, YIMBY Denver didn’t think the organization would ever be able to afford a poll to test support for its policy ideas because polling can be expensive. But when YIMBY Denver members met Pax Fauna at the Democratic Party reorganization meeting earlier this year, the two realized a partnership could make such a poll possible.

Pax Fauna is a sister organization of Pro Animal Future, the group that unsuccessfully pushed for a slaughterhouse ban in Denver during the 2024 election. Pax Fauna regularly conducts polling; YIMBY Denver got to include questions on a larger Pax Fauna poll by contributing funds to Pax Fauna's effort.

The poll, conducted by Change Research, reached 297 likely 2026 Denver voters from March 20 to March 25 online via SurveyMonkey; responses were solicited on social media and through texts. (YIMBY Denver does not know what Pax Fauna’s questions were on the larger poll, or what those results were.)

YIMBY Denver paid for the poll from its funds as a nonprofit and also got help from Denver City Councilwoman Sarah Parady, whose office confirms she made a “small, personal donation.” In exchange, YIMBY Denver included a question asking if voters would support the city itself building and owning mixed-income housing if doing so was a one-time expenditure that did not permanently raise taxes. The survey found 60 percent of people support that idea.

Denver Residents Want More Housing to Be Allowed Everywhere

YIMBY Denver found that 73 percent of likely Denver voters support allowing more homes to be built in every neighborhood. That’s a promising result, according to Keeney, as it shows that residents are more open to welcoming housing density throughout the city.

When YIMBY Denver was founded in 2016, the status quo was not to allow upzoning, Keeney recalls. Generally,  residents would show up at Denver City Council meetings opposing plans by developers to build denser housing.

“That's usually not the case anymore,” he says, noting that today residents tend to show up in support of such projects. “The crisis is just so bad now that the parochial concerns people had about, ‘Oh, there's going to be shadows on my zucchini garden,’ just don't really resonate when there's an encampment of unhoused people down the block that takes up the entire city block and their children can't find a house in Denver and have to leave the city.” Rezoning to allow more housing has helped combat rising rent and housing prices in Denver. The Apartment Association of Metro Denver’s quarterly rent report found that rent in Denver right now is at its lowest since 2022. The report named increased housing supply as a major reason for that trend.

Along with general support for more housing, the poll showed strong support for building up areas around transit stations, with 74 percent of those surveyed supporting allowing eight-story buildings within a quarter mile of rail stations.

Even building around parks saw strong support, with 64 percent of those surveyed saying they support allowing five-story structures within a quarter mile of city parks. Keeney says that YIMBY Denver asked that question in response to voters rejecting a 2023 ballot measure that would have allowed housing on much of Park Hill Golf Course property. As the City of Denver moves to buy the park, YIMBY Denver wanted to know what people would like to see now.

“We decided we don't want to build housing on the park, what about housing next to the park?” Keeney suggests. “It also helps with equity, because if we allow more multifamily near parks, that means more people can actually access the parks.”

People support allowing more multifamily housing everywhere; it's sometimes called legalizing middle housing by YIMBY groups nationwide. According to the poll, 58 percent of people support allowing six-plexes to be built on any residential lot in the city.

One of the most popular survey questions involved streamlining housing permitting; 77 percent were in favor. Johnston recently created the Denver Permitting Office with the goal of doing just that.

One question that didn’t receive majority support: Whether six-plexes should be built on the private lots of people over 55. YIMBY Denver wanted to gauge interest in housing density and options for senior citizens, a group sometimes known to struggle with housing costs, but only 44 percent of those surveyed were interested in the idea.

After seeing that result, YIMBY Denver thinks the question should have made it clear the idea was about permission rather than coercion. “We don't want to force people and evict them out of their homes so we can build six-plexes,” Keeney explains. “This is voluntary. Maybe they can sell their house, make some money, build a six-plex, and then move into one of the units.”

Overall, YIMBY Denver leaders say they're heartened by the poll’s findings, and hope elected officials will see the results and feel empowered to support housing policies.

“You might have legislators that might be pro-housing, but they fear that they might get booted out of office if they vote for these things,” Keeney says. “The purpose of this poll is to provide additional evidence to elected officials that the public will, in fact, support their position if they vote to legalize housing options where currently it's not allowed. …We want elected officials to know that they can support density.”