Colorado launches initiative to speed up affordable housing projects

State leaders this week announced the launch of a new program aimed at easing Colorado’s worsening affordable housing shortage. 

The initiative marks a step toward a statewide common application for affordable housing development — an issue that both Gov. Jared Polis and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston have historically been very vocal about.

“There is no greater need in Denver and Colorado than affordable housing, and no greater obstacle to our success than time,” Johnston said in a statement.

The program, called Housing Hub Colorado, is designed to streamline the currently fragmented application system for affordable housing funding. 

Developers seeking to build income-restricted rental housing typically must apply to multiple agencies — including the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA), and Denver’s Department of Housing Stability (HOST) — each with its own deadlines, forms, budget templates, and requirements. Developers say the lack of coordination often adds months of delay, contributes to rising project costs, and can stall projects before they ever break ground.

The new initiative aims to address that by aligning requirements across agencies and eventually consolidating them into a single, statewide application. The common application is slated to launch in 2026 — a change that 85 percent of recent housing credit applicants identified as the single greatest improvement the state could make to the current process.

“This effort is the result of unprecedented collaboration between state and local partners committed to reducing bureaucratic red tape, cutting down duplicative work, and improving the experience for developers who build affordable homes across the state,” the program announcement stated.

The initiative comes as Colorado continues to grapple with severe housing pressures. The state has one of the fastest-growing populations in the nation, yet housing production has lagged for more than a decade. More than half of Colorado renters are now considered cost-burdened, meaning they spend over 30% of their income on housing, according to a recent Mile High United Way report. In some mountain and Front Range communities, the rate is even higher.

While the consolidated application won’t be launched until next year, the Housing Hub Colorado website, featuring application timelines and resources for developers, is already live.