The act creates the strengthen Colorado homes enterprise (enterprise), which is a government-owned business created in the division of insurance (division) in the department of regulatory agencies. The enterprise is governed by a 7-member board (board), including the commissioner of insurance (commissioner), or their designee; members with expertise in home hardening, risk mitigation, resilient roof systems, and insurance underwriting or actuarial analysis; and members representing the interests of insurance companies, consumers, and counties. The primary purpose of the enterprise is to impose and collect an annual fee (fee) from an admitted insurance company that offers multiperil homeowner's insurance policies in the state and is subject to certain filing requirements with the division, not including the fair access to insurance requirements association (insurer). The enterprise shall use fee revenue to provide business services to insurers that pay the fee, including:Reducing insurer losses and administrative expenses due to hail damage claims by defraying the cost of retrofitting residential property by providing grants for the installation of resilient roof systems (grants). At least 85% of the fee revenue must be used for grants to Colorado homeowners to retrofit residential property to reduce insurer losses due to hail and windstorms.Analyzing data on hail losses to identify areas of the state to target for installation of resilient roof systems;Setting standards for resilient roof systems and awarding workforce training grants for installing and certifying resilient roof systems;Creating codes of conduct for roofing contractors to ensure roofs are properly and appropriately installed;Evaluating roofing protocols to ascertain if the protocols meet science-based, certifiable standards; Conducting or contracting with a third party to conduct a study to analyze insurance risk in high-risk wildfire areas of the state; andImproving market stability throughout the state. Beginning in the 2027 calendar year, the amount of the fee imposed and collected by the enterprise is an amount equal to 0.5% of the total premium collected by an insurer on multiperil homeowner's insurance policies in the state in the immediately preceding calender year. The insurer shall not surcharge the fee amount to policyholders. The enterprise may lower or cease collecting the fee from an insurer in any calendar year to ensure that total fee revenue does not exceed $100 million in the first 5 years of the enterprise's existence. In awarding grants, the board shall prioritize homes that are the homeowner applicant's (applicant) primary residence and shall consider other criteria, including applicant income, the age of the roof, the size of the home, the number of grant applicants, whether the home is in a locality with hail-resistant building codes, and whether the applicant lives in a location that has historically had a higher susceptibility to extreme weather events. In order to ensure the necessary workforce, fee revenue may also be used to award grants to defray the costs of training and certification related to installing and certifying resilient roof systems. A contractor that is awarded bids and receives money from a grant is prohibited from waiving homeowner's insurance deductibles. In addition, the board shall use fee revenue to conduct or contract with a third party to conduct a study to analyze insurance risk in high-risk wildfire areas of the state, including an analysis of market competition in those areas and the impact of a high risk program on the potential losses in the high-risk wildfire areas of the state and the availability of homeowner's insurance in those areas. The board or third party conducting the study shall engage with relevant stakeholders that include, at a minimum, representatives of reinsurers and reinsurance brokers, insurers writing homeowner's insurance contracts or policies in Colorado, individuals with expertise in complex financial instruments and debt instruments, and consumers or other individuals with expertise in wildfire mitigation. The board shall send the study to certain committees of the general assembly. The board shall adopt rules and policies for the regulation of the enterprise's affairs and the conduct of enterprise business, including standards for resilient roof systems and standards for contractor-specialized training in the installation of impact-resistant roof systems. No sooner than January 1, 2027, and upon the commissioner adopting rules, an insurer offering multiperil homeowner's insurance for property or risks located in the state is required to submit an annual filing to the commissioner that includes the number of policies in force, the number of homes that have installed a resilient roof system, the discount applied to homes due to the presence of a resilient roof system, and the wind and hail claims frequency and severity for homes with and without a resilient roof system. $66,250 is appropriated from the legal services cash fund to the department of law to provide legal services to the department of regulatory agencies to implement the act. The appropriation is from revenue received from the department of regulatory agencies that is continuously appropriated to the department of regulatory agencies from the strengthen Colorado homes enterprise fund. The appropriation to the department of law is based on an assumption that the department of law will require an additional 0.3 FTE to implement the act.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act establishes and clarifies financial protections for mobile home park residents. The act requires a landlord of a mobile home park to notify residents when the landlord is temporarily prohibited from increasing rent. Under current law, a landlord is required to send notice to residents when the landlord intends to sell the mobile home park. The act adds to the information that must be included in the notice that the landlord sends to residents of the park to include a statement that the landlord must provide additional information and documentation to a home owner upon request by the home owner, including:The basis of the purchase price, such as aggregate rental data, rent projections, and recent appraisals of the property;Disclosure of the age of major infrastructure in the mobile home park;Documentation of any infrastructure inspections, maintenance, and repair services from the previous 3 years;The most up-to-date rent roll and any documentation related to rents, charges, outstanding balances, and the vacancy rate; andThe operating expenses and income for the park from the previous 3 years. The act requires that, for a potential sale of a mobile home park that is a portfolio sale including real property or structures located outside of the mobile home park, the price, terms, or conditions of the proposed sale, including for the real property or structures located outside of the park, must be made available to the home owners of the park, even if the home owners submit an offer to purchase only the park. The act requires the landlord and any potential buyer to conduct the sale of the mobile home park at arms-length and in good faith. The act establishes certain parameters related to the registration fee that must be paid by a landlord of a mobile home park and limits the amount that the landlord may charge each resident to cover the registration fee at $17.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires a landlord to:Comply with applicable court rules governing the protection and redaction of personal identifying information in eviction filings; andRedact personal identifying information from supporting documents submitted to a court. The act also requires a landlord to include in all rental applications:A notice to prospective tenants regarding the information and data the landlord will attempt to access when conducting a tenant screening;A general description of the factors the landlord will consider when evaluating a rental application, including a prospective tenant's credit history, rental history, income, and criminal background, if applicable; andAn indication of whether the landlord uses a third-party tenant screening service and, if so, the name of the service.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the department of local affairs, as part of its SMART Act hearing in January of 2027, to submit and present a proposal for the development of a statewide strategy on homelessness prevention and resolution. The proposal must include a plan that sets forth a timeline, an estimated budget, and a process for developing and implementing a statewide strategy on homelessness prevention and resolution. The proposal must set forth the following components that must be included in the statewide strategy on homelessness prevention and resolution:Identification of gaps and barriers that impede access to operational services for individuals experiencing homelessness;Identification of state agency-provided housing resources, including utilization rates;Recommendations for collaboration between state and local partners to facilitate homelessness response;Recommendations for funding and policies that could be implemented at the state level to support homelessness prevention and resolution;Recommendations proposed in coordination with continuum of care organizations to improve the implementation of the homeless management information system, data reporting, and coordinated entry systems; and Updates on regional navigation campuses. When developing the proposal, the department shall seek and incorporate feedback from a diverse array of stakeholders. The act creates a new type of special district, a multijurisdictional homelessness response authority (authority), which may be created when any combination of local governments enter into an intergovernmental agreement with one another to establish an authority. An authority must:Be used by the contracting local governments to reduce and prevent homelessness; andHave boundaries that contain the entirety of all the contracting local governments, but nothing more. An authority has several discretionary powers that relate to its ability to coordinate and plan with departments and organizations to reduce and prevent homelessness, including the power to provide for the levy of sales or sales and use taxes by the contracting local governments. If the intergovernmental agreement that creates an authority provides for the levy of a sales or sales and use tax by the contracting local governments within the boundaries of the authority:Each contracting local government shall submit to its registered electors a ballot question that relates to the tax and that requires any new tax revenue approved through the ballot question to be used solely for the planning, coordination, and implementation of regional strategies to reduce and prevent homelessness;The intergovernmental agreement must provide for a case in which the electors in some but not all of the contracting local governments approve the collection of the sales or sales and use tax at the general election; andThe intergovernmental agreement must provide that all or part of the taxes levied are distributed to the authority. An authority may seek, accept, and expend gifts, grants, or donations from private or public sources for the purposes of planning, coordinating, and implementing regional strategies to reduce and prevent homelessness, may issue revenue or general obligation bonds, and may pledge its revenue and revenue-raising powers for the payment of such bonds. The act allows a county to designate a portion of documentary filing fees, which are collected for filing documents associated with the grant or conveyance of real property, to be transferred to the county government or a housing authority for the purpose of developing, preserving, or acquiring affordable housing that:Is within the jurisdiction of the county government or housing authority;Is aligned with demonstrated community needs; andWill be available to individuals experiencing homelessness.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act specifies relevant factors for assessing reasonable accommodations related to assistance animals that may be necessary for an individual with a disability to have an equal opportunity to use and enjoy housing under the 'Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act'. Permitting an assistance animal is presumed to be a reasonable accommodation if a housing provider has been given an opportunity to engage in an interactive accommodation process with the individual requesting the accommodation. The act also:Defines 'reasonable accommodation', as it applies to discriminatory housing practices, as an exception or adjustment to a rule, policy, practice, or service that may be necessary for an individual with a disability to have an equal opportunity to use and enjoy housing, including public and common-use spaces;Defines 'assistance animal' as an animal that does work, performs tasks, assists, or provides therapeutic emotional support to an individual with a disability. 'Assistance animal' includes emotional support animals and service animals.Defines 'emotional support animal' as an animal that provides solely emotional support to an individual to alleviate a symptom or an effect of a disability;Permits a housing provider to request reasonable documentation to support an individual's claim of disability or disability-related need for an assistance animal if the individual's disability or disability-related need is not obvious; andPermits a housing provider, when considering a reasonable accommodation request, to consider documented, specific conduct of an assistance animal that poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others or that causes substantial physical damage to property.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires certain transit agencies that have at least one million unlinked passenger trips in the most recent year, and that are not the Colorado department of transportation or a regional transportation authority that provides funding for but does not directly provide transit services (covered transit agencies), to take specific actions to increase transit access. On and after June 30, 2027, a covered transit agency shall ensure that clear, up-to-date transit system maps are displayed at all rail stations, bus stations, and bus rapid transit stops and that information on fare rates and structures and eligibility requirements and application instructions for fare discount programs is available online and displayed in all transit vehicles and at all rail stations, bus stations, and transit stops with a covered shelter. A covered transit agency may meet these requirements by displaying summary information and a link or quick response (QR) code to a website with detailed information. A covered transit agency is not required to replace its fixed signage, displays, or maps solely to comply with these new requirements and, instead, is only required to update the required information upon the regularly scheduled replacement of any signage, displays, or maps. On and after June 30, 2027, a covered transit agency shall ensure that all publicly available information that it disseminates related to accessing its transit services, including fare structures, transit maps, service schedules, and the rights and responsibilities of transit riders, is translated into languages that are widely spoken in any county in which the covered transit agency operates or that are required by a covered transit agency's existing language access plan. A covered transit agency may use an existing language access plan to satisfy these language access requirements. Covered transit agencies are required to annually report their progress on the action areas required by the act, and other required information, to the governor and a joint meeting of the transportation committees of the general assembly beginning on or before January 31, 2028, and on or before each January 31 thereafter. Covered transit agencies must post this annual report on a publicly accessible website. Covered transit agencies are only required to report information that they already collect and may satisfy any of the information required to be reported by referencing or including a link to a publicly accessible official report that includes the required information.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Current law requires a local government or a tribal government desiring to receive funding from the statewide affordable housing fund to have filed with the division of housing of the department of local affairs (division) a commitment specifying how, within a 3-year cycle, affordable housing units within the local or tribal government's territorial boundaries will be increased by 3% each year over the baseline number of affordable housing units (baseline number). The baseline number resets every 3 years for the next cycle. To be eligible for funding from the statewide affordable housing fund, a local or tribal government is required to file a commitment with the division and achieve the 3% increase over the baseline number each year during the 3-year cycle. The act changes the requirements for the 3-year cycle beginning on January 1, 2027, and each 3-year cycle thereafter. A local government desiring to receive funding from the statewide affordable housing fund is no longer required to increase affordable housing units by 3% above the baseline each year, but is instead required to meet the target increase number of affordable housing units (target increase number). The target increase number equals the average annual number of permits for new housing units or functional equivalents of permits for new housing units that have been issued over the past 3 years within the jurisdiction of the local government, multiplied by the number of years of the upcoming 3-year cycle to which the local government is committing, multiplied by:0.10 if the average annual job growth rate in the county in which the local government is located is significantly lower than the statewide median annual job growth rate over the past 3 years, as determined by the division;0.15 if the average annual job growth rate in the county in which the local government is located is close to the statewide median annual job growth rate over the past 3 years, as determined by the division; or0.20 if the average annual job growth rate in the county in which the local government is located is significantly higher than the statewide median annual job growth rate over the past 3 years, as determined by the division. The act requires the division to establish specific numerical ranges for the job growth rate thresholds. The act permits a local government that desires to be eligible for funding from the statewide affordable housing fund but is unable to achieve the 3% annual increase in affordable housing units for the 3-year cycle beginning on January 1, 2024, to file a good faith effort waiver with the division. To be eligible, the local government must have achieved at least 65% of the targeted annual increase. The division may, in its discretion, grant a good faith effort waiver to a local government that filed for a waiver on or after June 15, 2026, but before November 1, 2026, and complied with other requirements of the act. The act permits a government that desires to be eligible for funding from the statewide affordable housing fund but is unable to meet the target increase number in affordable housing units for the 3-year cycle beginning on January 1, 2027, to file an adjustment waiver with the division. The adjustment waiver must be supported by verifiable data and propose a revised annual increase of at least one unit per year. The division may, in its discretion, grant an adjustment waiver to a government that filed for a waiver and complied with other requirements of the act. To determine whether a local government has achieved the target increase number for the 3-year cycle beginning on January 1, 2027, and for each 3-year cycle thereafter, an affordable housing unit that satisfies the following criteria counts for one affordable housing unit plus the following corresponding additional unit amount:Unless local governments have a written agreement otherwise, a unit developed with money from multiple local governments may be counted by each local government as a percentage of one unit proportional to the percentage of funding it provided;A unit that is developed on land donated by the local government qualifies for an additional 0.10 of a unit. The 0.10 of a unit qualifies for the local government that donated the land.An affordable housing unit that is developed with money provided by multiple local governments qualifies for an additional 0.10 of a unit for each local government that provided money;A unit that is developed to be for-sale housing and that meets certain affordability requirements qualifies for an additional 0.20 of a unit; andA unit that is restricted to be rented or sold to a household with an annual income of at or below 40% of the area median income, including a supportive housing unit, qualifies for an additional 0.20 of a unit. If affordable housing is developed and qualifies for a property tax exemption, thereby reducing property tax revenue to the county in which the affordable housing is located, and the county did not provide any money to develop the affordable housing, the division may, in its discretion, allow each such affordable housing unit to count as up to 1.15 affordable housing units for the county at the time of vertical construction. Beginning in 2027, to be eligible for direct funding, or for affordable housing projects within a tribal government's territorial boundaries to be eligible for funding, tribal governments are required to implement a system to expedite the development approval process for affordable housing projects and required to submit evidence of such satisfaction to the division.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Real property or buildings used to provide dwelling accommodations that substantially benefit persons with low income (project property) that is owned, leased, or under construction by a local housing authority, or an entity that is partially or wholly owned by a local housing authority, is exempt from property taxation. Section 1 of the bill clarifies that a "senior cooperative housing project" may qualify for such property tax exemption as a "project" of a local housing authority. A "senior cooperative housing project" is defined as a multi-unit residential building or complex occupied by qualifying seniors that is owned by a cooperative or cooperative housing corporation. A "qualifying senior" is an individual who is at least 65 years old and of low income.The affordable rental housing component of property in a public-private partnership between the middle-income housing authority and one or more public or private entities or persons is exempt from property taxation. Section 2 clarifies that a "senior cooperative housing project" that otherwise meets the qualifications and is selected by the authority may qualify for such property tax exemption as an "affordable rental housing project". "Senior cooperative housing project" has the same meaning as in section 1. A "qualifying senior" also has the same meaning as in section 1 and includes an individual who is of middle income. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
Current law provides an exemption for taxation on property acquired and developed for low-income housing by nonprofit housing providers, community land trusts, and nonprofit affordable homeownership developers. The bill expands the exemption to also include property intended for low-income residential rental property.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill gives city and county housing authorities (housing authority) the power to provide for the levy of a sales tax, sales and use tax, or property tax both within the jurisdiction of the authority, the resulting revenue of which will be directed to the housing authority, subject to the following conditions:The city or county has adopted a resolution determining that the levying of the tax will fairly distribute the costs of the housing authority's activities among the beneficiaries of the housing authority's activities and will not impose an undue burden on any particular group of people or businesses ; andA ballot question has been submitted to a vote of the registered electors of the city or county and subsequently approved by a majority of such registered electors, and the ballot question describes the purposes for which the tax will be used by the housing authority and complies with section 20 of article X of the state constitution. All new tax revenues generated are irrevocably pledged to the authority for the purposes set forth in the ballot question. If a sales or sales and use tax is approved by the voters of a housing authority:The rate of the sales or sales and use tax must not exceed 1% on any transaction taxable by the state , excluding the sale or use of cigarettes ; andThe executive director of the department of revenue shall collect, administer, and enforce the tax, and the city or county shall pay the net incremental cost incurred by the department in the administration and collection of the tax. The authority shall designate a liaison to coordinate with the department of revenue to implement the collection of the tax and to identify people eligible to collect the sales and use tax; and The tax revenue must be directed to a fund of the authority.The provisions authorizing the levy of the sales or sales and use tax will only take effect if the department of revenue receives an amount of gifts, grants, and donations sufficient to pay for the department's costs in administering the tax. If an ad valorem property tax is approved by the voters of a housing authority:The rate of the ad valorem property tax must not exceed 5 mills on each dollar of valuation for assessment of the taxable property within the authority's jurisdiction;The board of county commissioners of the county in which the housing authority is located shall levy the ad valorem property tax upon the valuation for assessment of all taxable property within the authority's jurisdiction;The officials charged with collecting ad valorem property taxes for the county in which the housing authority is located shall collect the taxes at the time and in the form and manner and with like interest and penalties as other property taxes collected within the county;The property tax revenue must be directed to a fund of the authority; andAll property tax revenue, together with interest thereon and penalties for default in payment thereof, and all costs of collecting the same shall constitute, until paid, a perpetual lien on and against the property taxed, and such lien shall be on a parity with the tax lien of other general taxes. The bill gives county housing authorities the power to issue revenue or general obligation bonds and to pledge the authority's revenues and revenue-raising powers for the payment of such bonds. The bill allows an urban renewal authority to enter into a shortfall guaranty contract with an urban renewal project developer (developer) specifying that, if the tax increment revenue is insufficient to pay the indebtedness incurred by the authority that is due, the developer is obligated to make a direct payment covering the full amount of the insufficiency. A shortfall guaranty contract:Constitutes a lien on the urban renewal project property the same as, and equal in priority to, a tax lien;Has priority over any mortgage, lien that is not a tax lien, or other encumbrance;Constitutes a covenant running with the land for the term of the contract; andMay be recorded against the real property upon which the urban renewal project is developed.(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
