Council president touts rental license plan but industry voices concerns
Guerilla Capturing photo)
Citing a need to broadly overhaul regulation of the city’s estimated 50,000-plus rental housing market, Denver City Council President Stacie Gilmore on Wednesday presented her proposal to institute a license requirement for rental properties to her colleagues.
The Denver Metro Association of Realtors and the Colorado Apartment Association were among those voicing opposition.
Gilmore’s proposal, titled Healthy Residential Rentals for All, would be by far the largest single licensing program in the city, and the largest expansion of required licensing in Denver’s history.
It would obligate landlords to get a license from the city for each of their rental properties every four years, a process that would require an inspection of the property.
Local-control advocates have wanted to repeal the prohibition on what s known as inclusionary zoning ever since a 2000 Colorado Supreme Court decision regarding a Telluride rent-control issue wound up affecting the entire state.
The lead-up to that decision began in 1981, when Boulder residents pushed an initiative seeking to institute rent control on existing buildings. In response, the Colorado Legislature passed a bill that local governments cannot institute any ordinance that controls rent, explains Megan Dollar, legislative advocacy manager at the Colorado Municipal League, a major proponent of HB-1117. As a result, she says, from 1981 to 2000, local governments acted in the same way they would have without the rent-control statute, in that when talking about new developments, they d ask for set-asides in the development of affordable-housing units.
A home, and the distance it provides, is one of the main tools available to fight the spread of COVID-19. But the pandemic has affected the livelihoods of thousands of Coloradans.
9Wants to Know has found there could be thousands of people teetering on the edge of an eviction, and they may be removed from their homes despite a moratorium. Chapter one: Unseen evictions
The Moore family is one of those invisible evictions. When Tray and Andrea Moore first moved to their Westminster home, they thought they would be there for years as they raised three girls.
“When we first moved here, we looked at each other and said, we are planting roots, ” Tray Moore said. “This is our home.
Rent payments remain strong as state, federal funds assistance grows, said Colorado Apartment Assocation
Colorado s stimulus bill will add another $54 million into the funds and the state expects federal relief to complement current assistance. Author: Katie Eastman Updated: 6:16 PM MST December 21, 2020
COLORADO, USA The federal stimulus bill will extend the eviction moratorium through the end of January, but the Colorado Apartment Association(CAA) said even when it does expire they don t expect to see mass evictions because there hasn t been a drastic decrease in people paying rent. There has been a negative effect by all this, but it s not catastrophic, said Drew Hamrick, general counsel and senior vice president of government affairs for the CAA. It s a manageable number.