APARTMENT ADVOCATE
NATIONAL APARTMENT ASSOCIATION /
NATIONAL MULTIFAMILY HOUSING COUNCIL
LIVE Denver Has Residents Feeling Good
A
recent tweet from Country
Time Lemonade made a big
splash on social media: Faced
with high-profile cases of
individuals reporting children's lemonade
stands for lack of permitting, they quickly
organized the best response possible.
Country Time will now be providing
assistance for the licensure and legal
expenses of any child’s lemonade stand that
is victim to such adult foolishness.
The tweet was highly active and widely
received with a smile. Cases like these
highlight an aspect of marketing that
comes further forward in the minds of
consumers as the Millennial generation
ages into key demographics: Corporate
social responsibility.
More so than ever before, corporate social
responsibility actions are dictating markets.
In a 2017 study by Cone Communications, a
reported 87 percent of Americans answered
that they would purchase a product because a
company stood up for an issue that they cared
about. Seventy-six percent even said that
they would refuse business if they learned a
company advocated contrary to their beliefs.
In specific, they found Millennials 10 percent
more likely to research and act on those
factors. Further, 71 percent of Millennials are
looking to business not just to speak up, but to
lead on issues they care about.
In an age of instant gratification, efforts
like this are increasingly important to
customers choosing who should receive
their business; a fact not lost on Nancy
Burke of the Apartment Association of
Metro Denver (AAMD).
58 | TRENDS
OCTOBER 2018
Her involvement in the inception of
the LIVE Denver program, which is
now flourishing, has provided a valuable
illustration of the immense social benefit
that the business community can achieve
when its mind is set to one purpose.
35 percent of their income to rent
payment, and the rest is paid for by
contributions to the LIVE fund. The
Denver Housing Authority administrates
the program in conjunction with the
Denver Office of Economic Development.
“A member of mine was then and is
now committed to the idea that we should
be bringing solutions to the table regarding
affordable housing,” Burke says.
“We believe in showing the community
that we are not the ‘money-counting
monopoly man’ that we are sometimes
painted as.
“We started this from the ground up;
there was no blueprint,” says Burke.
“But with the help of the city, our
members and a lot of community-
responsible businesses and foundations,
we were able to create from scratch
this program that is now making an
impact on housing affordability in the
Denver area. We are helping property
“We were finding that companies in
owners fill their units, we are helping
Denver were having a problem recruiting
businesses recruit better talent, but most
talent. We were on a fast track to becoming
importantly we are helping
a ‘second choice’ city. The housing costs
people find their homes in our
had led to many top flight recruits in many
area, and that means a lot to the
fields to turn elsewhere for employment
consumer, but it also means a lot
because of high housing costs,
to us at AAMD.”
which obviously couldn’t be allowed to
continue unnoticed.”
The program has been a
resounding success, and is being
This intersection of problems set the
studied by big metros nationwide,
stage for the LIVE Denver program, which
and could show up in your city
is now in its second year of piloting.
soon. By utilizing the influence
The program is a public-private partnership
of corporate social responsibility,
between businesses and foundations
Nancy, the AAMD and the city
contributing money or volunteering
of Denver are taking the lemons
apartment units, and the city of Denver.
of high demand for housing
The last participant is a qualifying citizen,
that the market gave them and
who signs a lease with a participating
making sweet LIVE lemonade.
property management company with a short
addendum that brings them under the LIVE
Learn more about LIVE
Denver umbrella.
Denver at www. livedenver.org,
or contact Nancy Burke at
The local apartment industry, driven
[email protected].
largely by independent operators and small
companies, found 400 units to bring under
the program. Each recipient contributes
www.aamdhq.org