Colorado to Consider State-Level LIHTC Bill

Colorado State Representative Crisanta Duran (D-District 5) and State Senator Jessie Ulilbarri (D-District 21) recently introduced HB-1017, which proposes to renew Colorado’s State Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. Colorado previously had a State Housing Credit in 2001 and 2002. The State Housing Credit helped produce approximately 800 affordable rental units, and raised more than $20 million in private sector equity for the development of affordable rental housing. And for every dollar in private sector equity contributions, Colorado was able to use that amount to leverage an additional $4 in federal, nonprofit, and private sector resources.

Modeled after the successful federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, the state program would authorize the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority to allocate $5 million in four-year housing tax credits to for-profit and nonprofit developers of affordable rental housing in 2015 and 2016. In exchange for the credit, developers would be required to restrict rents to be affordable to households earning 60 percent of the area median income or less for a 30- to 40-year period—consistent with the requirements of the federal LIHTC program.