died in the Senate, a couple of weeks before, just cause and land use collapsed. Even land use — Polis’ housing darling this year — did not represent quick relief: The density and growth it sought to incentivize would’ve taken years to bear fruit, and many advocates were leery of its potential to displace low-income tenants.
The Senate was a frustration for progressive Democrats all year. A swing vote on the housing committee in that chamber, Democratic Sen. Dylan Roberts, previously told the Post he was skeptical of rent control and just cause protections but that he didn’t relish his opposing role. “I’m just going to have to say, based on what data? On all the other times that property management companies have passed on savings to renters?” said Cathy Alderman, the chief communications and public policy officer for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. “That argument would make so much more sense if you were saying we’re putting reasonable rent stabilization measures in place but also giving property owners this tax relief.
Those trends represent a shift in the political appetite to tackle housing, both now and into the future, officials said. That’s in part thanks to the pandemic, which required government intervention to stave off mass evictions, and in part because the affordability crisis has become too large to ignore.of many young voters across the state, and Colorado needs to build tens of thousands of housing units.