Boulder is in the midst of a housing crisis. Restrictions on residential development have created a housing market dominated by scarcity, while the burgeoning local tech industry has inundated the market with wealthy people in search of homes. As a result, property values and rents have skyrocketed in recent years, outpacing the wage growth of the city’s working class.

This trend is evident in the numbers. According to a 2017 report by the Bell Policy Center, home prices in Boulder county appreciated by 11.2 percent, nearly double the U.S. average of 6 percent. According to that same report, the household hourly wage needed to rent a two-bedroom apartment in Boulder is nearly $24 per hour, while the average renter in Colorado makes only $17 per hour. This means a typical renter in Boulder must work 56.4 hours per week just to pay for rent and utilities, and this situation is only worsening. Meanwhile, average wages for the lowest quintile of wage earners have barely kept up with inflation, with 20th percentile real wages barely above pre-recession levels (State of Working Colorado 2017, Colorado Center on Law and Policy). As a result, the area’s working class population are being forced to make serious quality-of-life sacrifices — either moving to another city, working multiple jobs, or becoming homeless.

Fortunately, the city’s municipal code provides a framework for permanently affordable rentals. These properties are built and managed by companies such as Boulder Housing Partners, who enter into covenants with the city and set rents according to area median income (AMI). While these permanently affordable apartments don’t solve all of the problems faced by lower income residents of Boulder, they are designed to provide some relief from the 4 percent average yearly rent increases which have affected Boulder’s at-large renting population since 2010.

The formula for determining maximum rent for affordable units in Boulder is based on data published by the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority. This formula takes into account the number of bedrooms in a unit, as well as the required income level for tenants to qualify for the unit, and produces a maximum rent as a percentage of AMI. Thus, maximum rent levels for affordable units change from year to year at a rate proportional to the change in AMI. The logic behind using percentages of AMI to calculate rent limits is (that) as inflation and productivity cause steady increases in wages, renters in Boulder can afford to pay higher rent.

However, a closer look at the city’s demographics supports our claim. U.S. census data shows that, instead of signaling a substantial wage increase for Boulder’s workers, the increase in AMI simply reflects that, between 2013 and 2016, Boulder has gained a significant number of households earning above $100,000 a year, while seeing no change in the number of households earning less than $100,000 — the households that comprise the rental market.

Using data from the yearly American Community Survey, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) projects Boulder’s AMI to be 10.6 percent higher in 2018. This projection will be used to justify a commensurate increase the maximum rent for affordable housing. This has no connection to the wages of Boulder’s renters. Instead, it is an old tale — the rich are moving into Boulder, lured by its beauty and tech companies, and the current residents find themselves no longer able to afford the rent. Affordable housing is supposed to provide refuge from runaway gentrification — but the current rent increase is completely at odds with this purpose.

City Council has an obligation it its constituents to address this issue, and it is well within their power to choose a better index for determining rent limits in affordable units. As stated in chapter 4.14 in the City of Boulder Rental Compliance Manual, “the city maintains the discretion to amend maximum rents or substitute an alternative index which shall be published annually.” AMI is not the only way to determine maximum rent for affordable housing, and it is by no means the most logical. If the city of Boulder cares about allowing lower-wage workers to live where they work, officials must do a better, more thorough job of understanding our city’s demographics and use a more sensible metric to determine rent limits on these properties.

Jonathan Lamar is a Boulder resident.