Colorado Low Income Housing

Low Income Housing Information

Low income housing can be a godsend, but if you don't know how to apply, or who to get your information to, how can you ever expect to be approved?

Since laws and procedure vary from state to state, you'll need to learn a few specifics before applying. We can help!

The Benefits of Living in Low Income Housing in Colorado

Colorado is one of the American states that have actively encouraged the expansion of tenant-based housing assistance programs over the older project-based based models. Project-based housing assistance has largely fallen out of favor in many states because they concentrate low income people into public housing "projects" which, in turn, lead to a series of social problems and issues. Ranging from the social stigma and discrimination directed toward people that live in low income housing projects to the creation of slums and high crime areas, the project-based low income housing frequently results in more problems than it solves in many communities.

The newer option is the development of tenant-based rental assistance for people with low incomes and/or special needs. These programs allow the beneficiaries to live almost anywhere and still receive financial assistance in order to meet their rent. The primary advantage of tenant-based housing assistance is that it does not result in the concentration of low income people into de facto slums, but instead allows the low income population to remain scattered in the larger society, thereby eliminating many of the problems associated concentrating the poor into what amount to urban slum areas.

Colorado has taken this idea to heart, and though older housing projects still exist and some funds are directed toward maintaining these projects, most new applicants for rental assistance are granted tenant-based assistance, allowing them to live almost anywhere they want in the state. As is always the case, the landlord is not specifically required to rent to low income tenants receiving government assistance, but there is a good incentive system in play which means that many landlords are willing to do so. The result is that low income people that require financial assistance in Colorado are frequently not confined to urban housing projects, but free to live throughout the state.

The Colorado Department of Human Services runs a series of Supportive Housing and Homeless Programs (SHHP), which are designed to help very low income people, the homeless, disabled, elderly and other special needs residents. The SHHP funds are distributed through a network of some sixty private non-profit agencies and virtually all of the funds are tenant-based. Colorado is one of twelve states in the country that does not have permanent funding mechanism for the development and maintenance of affordable housing, though there is a concentrated effort to implement the Colorado Housing Investment Fund (CHIF), which would address this issue.

Despite the Colorado Housing Development Grant Fund, which focuses on encouraging property developers to build affordable housing units, and funds devoted to affordable housing from the Colorado's Private Activity Bond program, most affordable housing funds in Colorado still come from the federal government. However, changes in Colorado demographics have resulted in Colorado being among the bottom of the list of beneficiary states for most federal programs. At the same time, Colorado stands to benefit dramatically from the recent stimulus measures taken by the federal government, which will deliver more than $7 billion over the next three years, making it the largest infusion of federal housing funds to Colorado ever. Since many of these programs are administered by the state, it seems likely that the trend toward tenant-based rental assistance will continue to be the norm.