COS 2027
Community Over Corporation

Colorado Springs has everything it needs to be a world-class city.

See the full picture Read the platform

The full picture, side by side.

Real change starts with seeing the whole system clearly — not the highlight reel, not the complaint list, but both at once. Here's Colorado Springs as it actually is.

What we have

  • A front range setting beneath Tavá Kaa-vi that most cities would kill for
  • Garden of the Gods, free and open, in our own backyard
  • Over 300 days of sunshine annually
  • 25.5 million annual visitors and $3.1 billion in visitor spending1
  • The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center and a growing reputation as an Olympic city
  • Five military installations and the economic base that comes with them
  • A fast-growing tech, aerospace, and defense sector
  • A publicly owned utility company

What we live with

  • A renter needs $78,693 a year to afford the average COS rent — the median renter earns $58,325. Only 36% of renters clear that bar2
  • A 27,000-unit housing shortage today, headed toward 60,000 by 2035 on current pace2
  • 1,413 people counted experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2026 — against roughly 1,227 shelter and transitional beds region-wide34
  • Roughly 1 in 10 people counted homeless are veterans — in a city built around five military installations5
  • A $31 million shortfall in the city's own 2026 budget — deep enough to force layoffs, furloughs, and a shuttered community center6
  • One of the lowest lodging tax rates of any comparable tourism city — 142nd of 150 cities ranked by HVS — leaving real revenue on the table7
  • Surveillance and public safety spending decisions made without public input or a clear paper trail
  • No baseline of enforceable protections for workers and tenants when things go wrong

Why I'm here.

Caleb Angellen

My name is Caleb Angellen and I am running to be the next mayor of Colorado Springs. Born at Memorial Central Hospital and a proud resident of the city's West Side, this place literally runs in my blood.

What began as a research project about the city I love — its history, identity, and the way it's governed — has evolved to something much more. Through this research, I began to realize the passive, developer-centric leadership historically present in Colorado Springs is not a local anomaly. It's a microcosm of American politics.

Around the world, and especially within the United States, we have been sold our own slavery — and I'm not buying it anymore. It is time for change.

I am here because when I went to do my research about this city, I realized something: I have the power. I have the power to reclaim my sovereignty and change things for the people I love. I have the power to take responsibility for the city I live in — the planet I live on.

I will do so, and I will begin in my hometown, in the very same dirt that I came from and will eventually return to.

My opening promise is that every single decision, dollar, and policy that comes out of City Hall during my tenure will be: transparent, auditable, and democratic.

01 · Transparent
Every dollar visible
02 · Auditable
Every claim checkable
03 · Democratic
Every voice counted

What I'm most excited to fight for.

Should the city I love choose to elect me mayor, I will use every possible tool at my disposal to make this city a better place for the people who live here and to ensure that we honor the nature and history on which our city stands.

01

Protecting Workers and Tenants

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Office of Labor and Housing Standards

A dedicated city office that exists to enforce a baseline of protections for workers and renters — with real teeth, a real complaint intake, and real follow-through.

02

City Affordability

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Affordable housing, land trusts, and transit

Affordable housing units, community land trusts, and real public transit — every lever we have to make staying in this city possible for the people who live in it.

03

Community Spaces, Owned by the Community

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Community Spaces That Serve and Gather

Community grocery stores, community hubs, community pools — real, safe third spaces that belong to neighborhoods, not just amenities that pass through them.

04

Ending Homelessness

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The Commons Housing First Campus + CRD

A multifaceted approach to ending homelessness — not one program, but several working together: The Commons Housing First Campus, the Community Response Division, and every related policy alongside them, because no single fix solves this on its own.

The full platform.

This didn't start as a slogan — it started as a research project into how this city is actually governed. Every program here is grounded in that research, and where it's not an original idea, it's precedent: something already proven to work in a real city, not a theory. Look for "Precedent" notes as you read, and check the Sources section at the bottom for the receipts.

Three pillars. Three headline programs under each. Tap a pillar to open it, vote for the programs that matter most to you, and tell us what's missing. Every vote is logged live below — suggestions are vetted before they appear.

Community-Suggested Policies

Ideas from residents that Caleb's team has reviewed and approved — vote on these just like anything else on the platform.

Public Ledger — Live Community Input ● loading
Suggestions are vetted before being visible on the ledger to ensure that this space remains safe for all community members.
Team review panel

Get involved.

Leave your info and we'll keep you in the loop — early updates, ways to help, and how to spread the word before this is even public.

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We'll only use this to reach you about the campaign — never sold, never shared.

This campaign is trying to leave as little behind as it can. No mailers. No yard signs. Just stickers, simple flyers, and real conversations — the same "leave no trace" respect we'd expect for Garden of the Gods, applied to how we run for office. Campaigning shouldn't cost the planet something just to win an election.

Sources.

Every statistic on this site is cited here. Where we couldn't independently verify a specific number this session, we've said so rather than guess. If you spot something outdated, tell us — that's the whole point of "auditable."

  1. Visit Colorado Springs, "Pikes Peak Region Welcomed 25.5M Visitors in 2024" — visitcos.com
  2. City of Colorado Springs, "New Regional Housing Assessment Shows Colorado Springs 27,000-Unit Shortage Today, 60,000 Homes Needed by 2035" (Dec. 2025) — coloradosprings.gov
  3. City of Colorado Springs, "Mayor Yemi Responds to 2026 PIT Count Showing 19% Fewer People Experiencing Homelessness" (June 2026) — coloradosprings.gov
  4. Pikes Peak Bulletin, "Point-in-Time Count Shows 'Painful Realities' of Homelessness in Region" — regional shelter/transitional bed capacity (Sept. 2025) — pikespeakbulletin.org
  5. KKTV, "In Colorado Springs, It Feels Good to Be a Veteran" — approx. 11% of people counted in the 2025 PIT survey were veterans (Nov. 2025) — kktv.com
  6. CPR News, "Colorado Springs City Council Approves 2026 Budget" — $31M shortfall / cuts (Nov. 2025) — cpr.org
  7. HVS, "2025 Lodging Tax Report — USA" — Colorado Springs ranked 142nd of 150 U.S. cities by combined lodging tax rate. This ranking shifts slightly year to year (141st–142nd in recent reports) — hvs.com
  8. Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation (OLDCC), Defense Community Infrastructure Program — $60M FY2021 award round — oldcc.gov. Combined with OLDCC's separate Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program (~$25M FY2021) for the ~$85M figure cited — we have this second figure from prior research but could not re-verify a direct link this session.
  9. Colorado Springs Gazette / Denver Gazette, "Homeless Population in Colorado Springs Hit Record Highs, Point in Time Survey Shows" — 644 people met the chronically homeless definition in the 2025 PIT count (July 2025) — gazette.com
  10. White Bird Clinic (CAHOOTS program, Eugene, OR) evaluation; supporting finding in NBER Working Paper No. 32200 (2024), "Crisis Response and Mental Illness" — approx. 23% of 911 calls diverted to civilian crisis response. We don't have a direct link for this one — ask us and we'll track one down.
  11. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates — southeast Colorado Springs corridor population (zip codes 80910, 80916, 80911). General source, not a single specific link.
  12. San Antonio Office of Military & Veterans Affairs; City and County of Denver Office of Economic Development, federal relations function. General source, not a single specific link — we have this from prior research and haven't re-verified a direct link this session.
  13. Birmingham, AL, El Paso, TX, and New Orleans, LA dedicated federal grant-capture functions. General source, not a single specific link — same caveat as above.
  14. Haven for Hope, San Antonio, TX (opened 2010) — documented downtown homelessness reduction; Moore Place, Charlotte, NC (2014) — documented first-year medical cost savings. General sources, not single specific links.
  15. Montgomery County, MD Housing Opportunities Commission (Right of First Refusal, est. 1974); Champlain Housing Trust, Burlington, VT (est. 1984). General sources, not single specific links.
  16. White Bird Clinic (CAHOOTS), Eugene, OR (36 years of operation); Denver STAR Program (2020–present). General sources, not single specific links.
  17. Fruitvale Transit Village, Oakland, CA — UCLA 10-year longitudinal study (2013), Unity Council. General source, not a single specific link.