Arvada Chamber Releases Housing Advocate Workbook

Updated: September 10, 2024

By Tess McShane, Director of Housing & Childcare

The Arvada Chamber of Commerce is excited to announce the release of the “Housing Advocate Workbook,” a new and valuable resource designed to help business leaders understand the impact of housing barriers on the region’s workforce and how businesses can advocate for local, regional, and statewide housing policies and projects. 

The Arvada Chamber’s B.O.L.D. 2026 Housing Initiative goal seeks to ensure access to income-aligned housing so that workers can attain housing within reasonable proximity to their jobs. 

The Housing Advocate Workbook is a resource for any business leader, regardless of industry of business size. The workbook aims to help leaders understand how housing barriers affect their business, learn how to provide testimony, and develop their own narrative for future advocacy efforts. Business leaders play a crucial role in achieving this goal through advocacy and testimony at the local, regional and state levels. Through testimony, specifically, leaders can share their experiences and support policies and initiatives that improve housing access for the workforce. 

Included in the Housing Advocate Workbook: 

• Data and resources to explain the current housing burden for our region’s workforce
• The benefits of being a Business Housing Advocate
• Testimony as a strategy of advocacy
• A template to write your own testimony narrative, including 5 steps and content suggestions
• Where to advocate at the state, regional, and local levels
• Resources to learn more about the housing burden and testimony tips

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Interested in being a Housing Advocate? 

1. Sign up for Muster – Muster is a platform through the Arvada Chamber for individuals to sign up to engage elected officials and volunteer to testify for policy changes, initiatives, and projects at the state, regional, and local levels. Through Muster you can be informed of upcoming income-aligned housing projects or policy and volunteer to provide testimony with support from the Arvada Chamber team. 
   
   
2. Sign up to be a B.O.L.D. Housing Champion –  Join the B.O.L.D. 2026 Housing Network as a Champion! This is an opportunity for any individual to participate in the initiative and learn about upcoming Housing events, new programs and resources, receive updates on the Housing initiative.
   
   
3. Start to craft your narrative – Review the workbook and explore how you can tie data to your personal story and share how housing access has impacted your business through difficulty attracting top talent, high turnover, or another consequence. Begin drafting what increased housing access for the workforce would mean for your business. If you have questions, or would like to review with someone, please email tess@arvadachamber.org.
   
   
4. Review the Chamber’s Bill Tracker – This tool helps inform on Colorado Legislative bills in business regulation, workforce, housing, and childcare. This is a great tool to be informed of future legislative policy agendas and policy positions of the Arvada Chamber. 
   
   
5. Share the workbook – Please feel free to share this workbook with colleagues and peers! This is an exciting opportunity for more business leaders to become involved with this program and start to draft their narrative for future testimony. 
   

The Arvada Chamber will be working to make this workbook and training available online for more business leaders to access and complete their narrative through a self-paced training. We are excited to offer future updates about the workbook and a Business Housing Advocate in the fall to connect with state partners and legislators, and learn more about testifying in support of housing access for the workforce!