Rent Control Bill Axed in 2023 Legislative Session — but All Hope Is Not Lost

Colorado communities won’t be able to consider rent control for at least another year, as the proposed bill to repeal the 1981 prohibition of such policies in the state was voted down in a Senate Local Government and Housing Committee meeting on April 25.

State Senator Dylan Roberts, a Democrat, joined the three Republicans on the committee as a "no" vote to officially kill HB23-115, though he acknowledged that rent is unaffordable and needs to be addressed.

“I'm not convinced right now that rent control is the way to do that,” said the Western Slope legislator. “I came into this hearing skeptical, but I tried to listen to all the testimony, engage with the subject and look at data — over the last several months, to be honest, since this bill got introduced a while ago — and I just haven't been able to get there.”

Cesiah Guadarrama Trejo, co-chair of Colorado Homes for All, a grassroots group that advocates for affordable housing, says the outcome was disappointing.

“I'm very proud to stand up for Coloradans who are struggling with skyrocketing rent and housing costs,” she says. “This vote means that teachers and service workers who are rent-burdened will be forced out of their committees where they work, both in the Denver metro area and in mountain areas with resorts.”

Representatives Javier Mabrey and Elizabeth Velasco sponsored the legislation with Senator Robert Rodriguez. During the April 25 meeting, Rodriguez noted that housing costs were an issue five years ago, when he was running for office — and they still are today.

This bill, he said, could be a solution to help local governments solve that problem. It wouldn’t implement rent control, but would instead repeal the ban on it.

“What this bill is about is local control,” Rodriguez explained. "What I think would work for my community is not what may be needed in your community.”

He pointed out that arguments in favor of local control are what have stymied Governor Jared Polis’s land-use bill and asked for consistency from his fellow legislators.

Many residents shared their stories of being rent-burdened at the meeting, including Guadarrama Trejo, who lives in a mobile home community in Adams County.

“Many of my neighbors are immigrant Latino families, seniors, people with disabilities and essential workers,” she testified to the committee. “I can tell you that my community is, and works like, a small village. I can find almost everything I need in it.”

In 2022, Colorado Homes for All found that mobile home communities like Guadarrama Trejo’s experienced rent increases of up to $300 per month, forcing out people who make those communities vibrant. After the hearing, Guadarrama Trejo told Westword that it was particularly heartbreaking to hear stories from elderly residents who question whether their income will run out before they die because of rising housing costs.

Not everyone who spoke on Tuesday was supportive of the repeal, however.

Andrew Hamrick, general counsel and senior vice president of government affairs for the Colorado Apartment Association, testified that rent control could lead to more short-term rentals and could drive up prices in nearby cities if there is not enough housing growth in the cities that have implemented the measure.

Developers and landlords have consistently maintained that in areas with such policies, rent control would cause a decrease in the number of apartments built.

“There are plenty of models where this has been implemented and it's working fine,” Rodriguez countered after testimony at the meeting. “There's tons of data on it. We haven't seen any states repeal it that have it. It's just a fear tactic for anybody that's in it for profit.”

Owners of mountain real estate companies and small landlords also testified in opposition to the bill. The mountain communities that they hail from are part of what Senator Roberts cited as the reason for his opposition: He agrees with the notion that if one resort town were to go for rent control, neighboring towns that don't would suffer.

“I'm firmly of the belief that one of the main reasons why rent is too high, why affordable housing is a crisis right now, is because we don't have enough stock in Colorado,” he said. “I've become convinced that rent control, even in a local manner like this, could, and probably would, stifle development.”

Senator Sonya Jaquez Lewis, who chairs the Senate Local Government and Housing Committee and was in favor of HB23-115, disagrees with that notion. “We're missing a huge opportunity here to allow local communities to do something about what is happening in our state,” she said. “I will be a yes, and I'm sure that the sponsor and other groups will just keep trying year after year after year.”

Guadarrama Trejo confirms that the legislation will be back next year. In the meantime, Colorado Homes for All will be working to build the power necessary to pass the measure.

“From hearing their testimony last night and being there in person, it's very clear to me that corporate greed and greedy corporate landlords will continue to dig in their heels and oppose certain protections like local control of rents,” she says. “That's why we are building the people power needed to pass this type of measure next year.”

While tenants won’t be getting rent control, a number of other bills aimed at improving the lives of renters are being weighed by lawmakers.

A bill that would prohibit landlords from considering credit scores in most rental applications and from requiring an income of more than twice the annual rent — or a security deposit of over two months' rent — is just waiting for a vote on the House floor to pass.

House Bill 23-1068, which would eliminate pet rentals and fees, passed both the House and the Senate, and is currently waiting for the House to agree on amendments passed by the Senate. The same goes for HB23-1095, which would prohibit certain provisions from being included in leases, mainly regarding eviction proceedings, but also including other protective measures for tenants.

Two other bills concerning evictions are still making their way through the legislature. One would require mediation prior to eviction proceedings in many circumstances; it has passed in the House and is being considered in the Senate Appropriations Committee. The other, which would require just cause for evictions, passed the House and is in the Senate Local Government and Housing Committee.

“There is a wide range of renters'-rights protections this year,” Guadarrama Trejo says, citing the just-cause bill as another piece of legislation that Colorado Homes for All has rallied for.

Allowing consideration of rent control would have been a great addition to the affordable-housing toolbox, she adds: “We continue to believe and advocate that this tool for local control of rents is one of [those tools]."