This time last year, rental housing advocates emerged from the Colorado legislative session disappointed and frustrated at the lack of progress on one of the state’s largest issues — the lack of affordable housing.
In 2023, Gov. Jared Polis’ signature housing priority, a sweeping attempt to override local land use rules and increase density, failed on the final day of the session. He also vetoed a priority of many progressives: a measure that would have given local governments broad powers to buy affordable housing and preserve it before it hits the private market.
Aside from legislation to implement a voter-approved housing measure, Proposition 123, there also wasn’t much public funding set aside last year to develop new affordable housing — or to help renters with the cost of living. Instead, the biggest piece of housing legislation was a measure aimed at a wealthier and more politically connected constituency: homeowners, who were the focus of lawmakers’ efforts to provide relief via as much as $1 billion in property tax cuts.
But this year? “I think we should be proud of what we did this year,” Rep. Javier Mabrey, a Denver Democrat and eviction defense attorney, told The Colorado Sun in an interview. “I think we did a lot to help working-class Coloradans.”
Colorado’s Democratic majority secured a mix of major legislative wins and modest reforms that, taken together, amount to one of the largest policy packages aimed at renters in the state’s history. In recent memory, the legislative haul is rivaled only by a 2022 legislative session in which the state had around $1 billion in federal stimulus funding to spend on housing and other social services.
Here’s a rundown of what they passed, what they didn’t, and what it all means for renters.
Boosting the housing stock
The most significant legislative efforts were aimed at increasing Colorado’s housing supply.
House Bill 1313 — a remix of Polis’ land use measure from a year ago — requires 31 local governments, mostly along the Front Range, to zone for more apartments and townhomes near transit. The governor also signed into law a bill legalizing accessory dwelling units in much of the state. That measure, House Bill 1152, also offers some financial incentives for homeowners interested in constructing such units, also known as granny flats, on their properties.
Other bills, like an expansion of the state affordable housing tax credit, got less attention. But Cathy Alderman, a spokesperson for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, says they shouldn’t be overlooked.
“That’s huge,” Alderman said. “That is the biggest tool to build and provide publicly funded, subsidized long-term affordable housing. So if we can get more of that to market, maybe we won’t have these huge gaps between income and housing costs.”
House Bill 1434, which awaits Polis’ signature, would more than double the state’s affordable housing tax credit over the next eight years, according to a legislative staff analysis, allowing developers to subsidize thousands of new affordable housing units using $50 million to $120 million a year in state tax credits.
Local governments could have their own role to play, if Polis allows House Bill 1175 to become law. The measure would create a “right of first refusal,” giving local governments a chance to buy publicly subsidized housing that’s at risk of losing its affordability restrictions and being rented out at higher rates by a private buyer.
The bill doesn’t go as far as last year’s version, which Polis vetoed. But while supporters say concessions were needed to secure passage, Alderman said she hopes local governments will be given stronger tools in five years when the program is set to expire.
Republicans joined Democrats on another measure, Senate Bill 174, which will require local governments to study their community’s housing needs and develop plans to address them. But the GOP largely opposed the other measures.
On land use, Republicans argued that local governments should be allowed to determine how their communities develop.
“People don’t move here to live in high rises, they move here for the open spaces,” Rep. Anthony Hartsook, R-Parker, told The Colorado Sun at an event earlier this month.
On other housing legislation, like the affordable housing tax credit and the right of first refusal, conservatives argued the free market — not local government — was best suited to address the state’s housing crunch.
Even the legislation’s supporters, though, say renters shouldn’t expect to see benefits for years to come.
“The idea behind the governor’s land use bills is that eventually we’re going to have more housing built and that’ll lead costs to go down,” Mabrey said. “I hope that’s the case, but I don’t think that relief is going to come soon enough.”
Financial assistance
In the short-term, lawmakers looked primarily to the state’s $2 billion tax surplus to provide financial help to those struggling with the cost of rent — though you don’t have to be a renter to qualify.
However, in contrast to a state property tax cut bill — which will help all homeowners, regardless of their income — most of the financial relief aimed at renters is restricted to low-income households, excluding many middle-class families.
Democrats expanded the state’s version of the earned income tax credit, a federal antipoverty program, increasing what workers can receive by as much as $1,400 a year. They also created a new child tax credit that would give low- and middle-income Coloradans up to $3,200 per child.
“Those target the people who are suffering most from Colorado’s cost of living crisis,” Mabrey said.
Under another bill headed to the governor’s desk, seniors could qualify for up to $800 in tax credits aimed at elderly renters who don’t benefit from the state’s property tax break for senior homeowners. A separate bill that would have extended a similar tax credit to renters of all ages died in a House committee without a vote.
Renters could eventually benefit from the property tax cuts as well — but only to the extent that landlords bake their property tax costs into the price of rent.
New tenant protections
The General Assembly also strengthened the legal powers of tenants facing uninhabitable living conditions or displacement — over the objections of landlords who said the new regulations would backfire on tenants and lead to higher rental costs.
Senate Bill 94 puts more teeth into the state’s warranty of habitability law, requiring landlords to make repairs faster and making it easier for tenants to fight them in court if their property manager doesn’t follow the law.
Tenant advocates didn’t win every battle.
Under House Bill 1098, landlords can no longer refuse to renew a tenant’s lease without cause to do so, such as bad behavior on the tenant’s part or if the landlord decides to take the home off the market. However, it stops short of requiring landlords to provide relocation assistance to some tenants, as supporters had initially sought.
Progressives didn’t revive a fight over rent stabilization after last year’s attempt died in the Senate. Lawmakers also killed a bill that would have made it a violation of consumer protection laws for landlords to use algorithms to set rent that use nonpublic data from competitors.
A ProPublica investigation in 2022 found the practice could be a form of price-fixing that contributed to the astronomical rise in rent following the pandemic. The state Senate watered the proposal down to allow the practice in many circumstances, leading the House to reject the amended version.
“I think we’ve made enormous progress,” Alderman said. “Is there still more to do? Of course there is.”