Colorado unveiled an initiative Tuesday aimed at helping developers clear one of the biggest hurdles to building affordable housing in the state: paperwork.
The Housing Hub Colorado is a one-stop website where developers can find information on different housing tax credits and financing options available to them and how to apply for those incentives and programs. It also features a form builders can use to update state and local agencies on their budgets, which are a critical part of the tax credit and financing application process but can take hours to complete.
The hub is the result of a partnership among the state, the city of Denver and the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority. It’s starting off with a focus on projects built for people with low income. But those involved hope to eventually broaden it to help developers aiming to build other types of affordable housing, including for middle-income Coloradans.
“What we’re really trying to do is reduce time, frustration and human error in having a central place for the developer to go to,” said Thomas Bryan, executive director and CEO of the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority. “Time is money, and to the extent we’re saving the developer time and resources that ultimately goes to requiring less subsidy for each deal, we have more subsidy to give to the next deal.”
Bryan said that means more housing in Colorado and quicker.
“Which is what we really need,” he said.
The state estimates there would have to be 34,100 new homes built in Colorado each year over the next decade to meet demand. The state’s housing shortage was estimated to be 106,000 units in 2023.
Maria De Cambra, who leads the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, cited a study showing that bureaucratic red tape can add about $20,000 to the cost of an affordable housing unit and four months of construction time.
“Our agencies have been doing affordable housing finance the same way for decades,” she said. “We’re changing the way that we do business. Thomas and I were just at a conference where we met a developer that had to do 17 applications for a project. We cannot tell you how excited he was that we’re doing this.”
Housing Hub Colorado is the first initiative to come out of the Colorado Housing Consortium, which was launched this year as a way to gather public and private sector leaders to come up with housing solutions.
The people and agencies behind Housing Hub Colorado next plan to roll out a common application for developers seeking tax credits, financing and grants. They hope to have that ready some time in the new year.
