(Mar. 21) – The House Finance committee approved Rep. Shannon Bird and Rep. Brianna Titone’s bill today to boost the supply of affordable housing in the state by expanding the Affordable Housing Tax Credit, which helps leverage private funding for affordable housing projects across the state.
“We’ve seen that this is a proven and effective method to helping people access affordable housing and grow the middle class,” said Rep. Bird, D-Westminster. “There is so much extra demand for these grants across the state, so we definitely see a need to expand this tax credit to accommodate the high demand.”
The Affordable Housing Tax Credit supports key affordable housing needs such as workforce housing, homeless housing, and senior housing across Colorado and is one of the state’s most effective tools for increasing affordable housing available across the state. Colorado’s Affordable Housing Tax Credit raises private sector equity needed to support the development and preservation of affordable rental housing. It currently is authorized to allocate only $5 million; HB 19-1228 would increase the available tax credits to $10 million in 2020-24..
“We need to help ease the housing crunch. This bill will help seniors and hardworking people across our state,” said Rep. Titone, D-Arvada. “Access to affordable housing can help grow the middle class and our economy which will give back to Colorado in a lot of different ways.”
Between 2015-2018, the program supported 4,796 affordable rental units. The development of these homes is estimated to have generated over $1.9 billion in economic impact in Colorado.
HB19-1228 passed by a bipartisan vote of 7-3 and now heads to the Appropriations Committee.
The Finance committee also approved Rep. Bird’s bill that specifies bonding requirements that apply to certain public/private partnership contracts for construction on publicly owned property. SB19-138 unanimously passed out of committee and now heads to the House floor.