Exploring Life & Business with Julie Stern of Archway Communities

Today we’d like to introduce you to Julie Stern.

Thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’ve been working in affordable housing in Denver metro for the last 8 years. I had the privilege of starting my career here working with the Denver city government, so I will always see my work to create affordable housing as part of the bigger picture of our statewide housing challenge.

In so many ways, housing is infrastructure – all of the people who make our communities work need to be able to sustain themselves, and the market too often simply fails to provide a range of options that meets a diverse range of budgets and housing needs.

After having the chance to spend a few years being immersed in the policy conversation, including Denver’s first efforts to raise local funds to invest in affordable housing, I knew I wanted to get more hands-on and gain experience with all of the aspects of the development process that transform the land into homes. I had the opportunity to join one of our local housing authorities as the first full-time development staff member and build a development department from the ground up.

Right at the beginning of the pandemic, I had another opportunity to join Archway to tackle a similar challenge – and I now lead a team of 5 amazing developers who are leading creative and challenging development projects all over the state.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No question about it, affordable housing development is incredibly hard!

Take all of the ingredients that make all real estate development hard – zoning challenges, increasing land prices, increasing construction prices, increasing interest rates – and add tough competition for limited subsidy resources and LOTS of paperwork.

Luckily, I am driven by solving complicated problems that lead to outcomes that make a difference in my community – so I often think I have found the perfect job!

We’ve been impressed with Archway Communities, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Archway Communities is a Colorado-based non-profit that creates affordable housing in communities across the state.

The need for affordable housing in Colorado is daunting – about 100,000 households in the Denver metro area alone pay more than they can afford for rent! Because of the increasing challenges facing all kinds of real estate development, as well as the need to compete for limited public resources, it takes years of hard work to create just a small amount of affordable housing. Nonetheless, Archway has set a goal to expand our affordable housing offering by 1,000 homes within the next three years.

One thing Archway is incredibly proud of, that sets us apart from other affordable housing providers, is the comprehensive services we provide for all our residents. Each of our residential communities is supported by a full-time staff member who leads programming informed by the unique needs of the community – everything from weekly no-cost grocery programming to after-school activities for kids, to financial education for families looking to take the next step.

We believe strongly that affordable housing can be more than a roof over our residents’ heads – we seek to engage with our residents as whole people and are constantly asking ourselves what we can be doing to help them feel safe and supported and achieve their goals.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
The best thing people can do to support our work is to speak up in favor of a diverse housing stock in their communities. Each of our communities includes neighbors and a workforce of many different income levels, and the market doesn’t always provide the right housing to make it easy for everyone to be part of the community. Broad community support means everything in terms of our ability to achieve our mission.

Archway also relies on philanthropic support to provide the comprehensive services we offer to every resident across our portfolio. We are always grateful to receive support from the community!

Contact Info:

• Website: archwaycommunities.org
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/archwaycommunities/