Colorado lawmakers revive renter and eviction protections while adapting to political realities

As the clock neared midnight on the penultimate day of last year’s legislative session, a core piece of progressive housing policy sputtered toward a bitter, procedural end.

The bill would have granted “just-cause” eviction protections to Colorado renters, essentially giving them the ability to renew an expiring lease even if their landlord wanted to move them out. The measure had cleared the House but then languished in the Senate amid opposition from moderate Democrats.

As the bill’s House sponsors watched through the glass in the Senate lobby, the clock ran out, and the measure died.

Nine months and more than 35,000 Colorado eviction filings later, the bill is back — albeit in a more limited form. Now dubbed “for-cause” eviction after undergoing changes, the revamped measure joins a half-dozen other proposals that seek to preserve affordable housing and keep renters in place. They also aim to realign the relationship between tenants and landlords in an era of record evictions.

The bill’s new version is sponsors’ acknowledgment of the complicated politics of housing policy, even in a legislature largely under one-party control.

“We are trying to make sure there’s a critical mass of us here in both chambers who are trying to make sure that renters aren’t left out of the conversation,” said Rep. Javier Mabrey, a Denver Democrat and eviction defense attorney who’s sponsoring the for-cause eviction bill. “When we hear the conversation about housing, a lot of it is about property tax cuts. A lot of it is about building more. But people who are renting right now need relief.”

The for-cause bill generally would require that landlords have cause, such as failure to pay rent, before evicting a tenant. As with last year’s version, the bill still would require that tenants be given first choice to renew their leases, but it no longer would require landlords to offer a new lease that’s substantially similar to the expiring one.

The revised bill also would give landlords a handful of exemptions — for instance, if a landlord was trying to move into the property or significantly renovate it. Last year’s bill was more restrictive on landlords, prompting concern it could protect “problem” tenants. The Colorado Apartment Association opposed it.

Other bills seek to limit eviction court fees, to ban software that uses algorithms to set rents and to improve local governments’ ability to retain affordable housing.

The package comes amid a parallel and similarly renewed push by Gov. Jared Polis to reform the state’s approach to land use.

The death of several housing bills last year sparked criticism that the legislature hadn’t done enough to help tenants, despite sizable Democratic majorities. Several legislators note that the crisis has only worsened: Eviction filings continue to surge in Colorado, hitting record levels in Denver last year.

Seeking help for rent-burdened residents

Nationally, a record high 22.4 million renter households — half of renters nationwide — spent more than 30% of their income on rent in 2022, according to new research from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

State lawmakers’ scramble to blunt the impact of this year’s property tax increases helped fuel the desire by Democrats to direct relief to tenants, too.

After Proposition HH’s defeat by voters in November, a special session saw the passage not only of property tax relief bills but also of a measure to flatten the state’s tax refunds, providing $800 to each income-tax filer. That move predominantly helps lower- and middle-income earners.

The legislature also passed a special session bill that directed $30 million to the state’s rental assistance program for tenants facing eviction. That money, which must be spent by June 30, has still not begun to flow but state officials expect that to happen this week.

Another bill that had been discussed ahead of the special session was introduced this week. It would give tax credits to single renters who make up to $75,000 and to couples who file taxes jointly and make up to $150,000.

The credits — up to $1,000 for singles and $2,000 for couples — would decrease as income rises toward those limits.

Legislators said they learned lessons from last year’s losses and from the broader debate about how to address Colorado’s housing crisis.

They didn’t revive another defunct bill that would have allowed local governments to enact rent-control policies. Instead advocates and legislators are aiming to consolidate their efforts, increasing the odds of achieving a win on another landmark policy that’s closer in reach.

Limiting the for-cause measure was “a hard pill to swallow for our members,” said Carmen Medrano, the executive director of United for a New Economy. But “it was something we decided to do because the substance of the rest of the bill can be life-changing for our grassroots members.”

The new for-cause bill largely nixes a contentious requirement that would have forced landlords to pay relocation fees to tenants who are displaced. That change may help smooth some moderates’ ruffled feathers.

Another lesson? Some policies take years to achieve, legislators said, and require shifts in strategy and scope.

“The eviction crisis and the housing crisis continue to plague us, so we have to act,” said Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat who’s sponsoring the for-cause bill, plus a second measure to bolster regulations around the habitability of apartments.

“For-cause is a different bill than it was last year because we listened to feedback from stakeholders,” she said. “I still think it will be a meaningful policy, should the governor sign that bill into law.”

Asked about his position on the for-cause bill in January, Polis didn’t directly respond. He said only that he would support bills that lower the cost of housing while being skeptical of anything that does the opposite.

Some bills likely to be more contentious than others

Other bills are less controversial or have support from both Democrats and Republicans. Those include a bipartisan measure to eliminate the fee that tenants pay when they respond to an eviction filing.

But some legislation is still likely to be contentious. The revamped for-cause bill remains a top concern for Republicans, not to mention the Apartment Association and its allies. Another bill, which would prohibit rent-setting software that tenants’ groups have argued is used to fix prices in the market, also will likely trigger opposition.

Republicans and property owners alike have accused Democrats of over-meddling in the rental market, arguing increased regulation risks driving up costs and pushing landlords out. Democrats argue that renters, whipsawed by rent increases and dwindling units available to lower-income people, need direct help.

“I’m still going to ask the question that I think we were asking last year: What problem are we trying to solve?” said Rep. Lisa Frizell, a Castle Rock Republican. “Are we trying to legislate a few bad actors in this space when it comes to landlords, or are we trying to create a labyrinth of rules that landlords and tenants are going to have to navigate?”

Last year, it was infighting among Democrats that hampered both progressive and moderate bills. Those dynamics appear to have softened this time around: House Majority Leader Monica Duran has joined Mabrey as a co-sponsor on the for-cause bill, and Speaker Julie McCluskie — who voted against the bill last year — called it “a significant priority for our caucus” at a news conference last month.

Across the aisle, Frizell called out another bill that’s back for a redo this year: a measure that would grant local governments a right of first refusal to buy for-sale apartment buildings. The bill squeaked out of the legislature in May, only to be vetoed by Polis a few weeks later.

The bill, now revised, would limit local governments’ first-refusal purchase right to only subsidized housing units. Local officials would be able to step in and buy an apartment building that was funded with specific federal tax credits, for instance, before it was sold to a private buyer.

But for regular market-rate units, the bill would give local governments only the right to submit a first offer.

“Sometimes you take a big swing and try to get the policy through that you want, and then you adapt to make sure it passes,” said Rep. Andy Boesenecker, the Fort Collins Democrat sponsoring the bill. “That’s our goal this year.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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