Westminster City Councilmember Obi Ezeadi Advances Landmark Westminster Down Payment Assistance Program

Proposal is part of broader affordability agenda to make Westminster housing more stable, affordable, and attainable.

May 28, 2026, Westminster, Colorado – On November 4, 2025, Obi Ezeadi was re-elected to Westminster City Council after centering his campaign on a clear affordability agenda: lowering the cost of childcare, utilities, housing, and groceries. Since then, he has worked with city staff and City Council colleagues, including Councilors Adam Barajas and Jack Johnson, Amber Hott and others to move that broader cost of living agenda forward.

“We must bring policy back to real life for our residents,” Ezeadi proclaimed. “We need to expand the imagination of what a municipality can do for its residents.”

One major piece of that work is housing: improving stability, expanding access to homeownership, protecting renters, and creating more income aligned housing options for working families, young professionals, seniors, and older adults.

Ezeadi authored a new formal objective in Westminster’s 2026 Strategic Plan to “improve housing stability, affordability, and access, including strengthening pathways to homeownership, preserving owner occupancy, advancing homelessness prevention strategies, and supporting renter stability so Westminster residents have a secure and safe home.”

Throughout 2026, Westminster has already delivered major housing wins, including the creation of a Housing Trust Fund, approval of $375,000 in targeted housing stability funding to prevent evictions, approval of Blossom Commons, a $26 million senior affordable housing project that will add 50 homes for older adults earning 30% to 70% of Area Median Income, and updates to Westminster’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan that allow for more housing types like missing middle housing, senior housing, and special needs housing.

Ezeadi emphasized the urgency of addressing Westminster’s housing shortage in the face of rising costs and changing community needs. “Nearly 33% of Westminster households are housing cost burdened, and another 10% are severely burdened,” Ezeadi said. “That means too many families, seniors, and young professionals are being forced to choose between housing, groceries, utilities, and the basic stability they deserve. That is unacceptable.”

The initiative builds on Westminster’s growing affordability work, including accessory dwelling units, tiny homes, expedited review for income aligned housing projects, development assistance for projects that include income aligned units, preservation of existing affordable housing, and reforms that reduce time and cost for multifamily housing projects.

Ezeadi noted that this work is only the beginning of a broader vision. He is pushing for a Westminster Down Payment Assistance Program for first-time and moderate income homebuyers, which was advanced during the City Council’s 2027 budget workshop on May 9, 2026. His idea is to partner with CHFA or a similar administrator to create a Westminster specific down payment assistance program using City funds and a revolving loan structure that helps first-time homebuyers now, while recycling dollars back into the program when homes are sold or refinanced.

Ezeadi says, “Westminster residents are facing significant affordability challenges, especially first time homebuyers earning 120% of AMI or below who are being priced out or forced to delay homeownership. The City needs to reprioritize its resources and step in.”

Ezeadi is also pushing for increased income-aligned and mixed housing supply, reforms to limit short-term rentals, stronger rental housing quality standards, and updated housing needs assessments that track corporate, out-of-state, and non-individual ownership patterns.

“Housing affordability is not just about supply and prices,” Ezeadi said. “It is also about who owns the housing, who gets to stay in Westminster, and whether our city is building pathways for working people to live, age, and thrive here. Local government cannot solve every part of the housing crisis, but we can move faster, smarter, and more directly than people think.”

For more information, please contact press@voteobi.com