Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and supporters Electoral issue 2Ra sales tax increase intended to boost investment and affordable housing programs, conceded the measure’s narrow defeat Saturday morning.

while prepared ground In results after Tuesday’s election, the measure was rejected with 51% of the city’s votes counted so far., according to the latest results released by the Denver Elections Division on Friday night.

This is a slight improvement over preliminary results released Tuesday, when the measure had a rejection rate of 52.2%. The change since then is a demonstration that voters who turned out on Election Day (casting votes more likely to be processed in the following days) were more supportive of the tax measure.

But with about 30,000 ballots still to be counted, 2R was still trailing by 6,145 votes. The mayor, in a statement at 5:59 a.m. Saturday, acknowledged that the deficit was too steep to overcome.

“We are grateful to the council members, housing advocates and community leaders who took on the challenge of addressing our affordability crisis head-on. “We knew this would be a difficult fight, but thanks to their bravery, 2R came up short by the narrowest of margins and Denver residents continue to speak loudly about the need to address rising housing costs across Denver.” . Johnston said in that statement.

He added that 2R was not the only avenue the city had to address its housing affordability challenges and that it will continue to look for new solutions.

A recent evaluation of the Denver Regional Council of Governments determined that Denver will need to build or preserve 44,000 units of affordable housing over the next decade to meet the city’s demands. Without a significant boost in the amount of financing available, the market is on track to produce just 19,000 affordable units during that time period, Johnston said in announcing the tax initiative this summer.

Johnston and his supporters felt that 2R, which would have raised an estimated $100 million a year initially and grown with the economy over its 40-year life, would ultimately move beyond the city’s many half-measures. It would have created a long-term funding source that they thought would turn the tide on Denver’s affordable housing shortage.

Groups such as the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, the Colorado Hotel and Lodging Association, Mile High United Way and numerous for-profit and nonprofit development companies supported him.

But ultimately that coalition was unable to sell the record sales tax increase for the majority of voters.

The Town Hall Housing and Homelessness Working Group He previously had a lunchtime discussion about first-year spending plans for 2R revenue on his agenda for next week. As of Friday night, that schedule had been changed to simply say a “discussion on issues related to housing and homelessness.”

Denver voters have been happy to support sales tax increases to fund priorities in the city’s recent history. they approved six dedicated sales tax streams combined in the 2018 and 2020 elections. These include 0.25% rate increases to fund the city’s Homeless Resolution Fund and the Parks Legacy Fund dedicated to acquiring and maintaining parks and open spaces .