Division of Housing Updates: October 9, 2020

Since July 15, 2020 more than 1,400 property owners have registered for the POP program requesting nearly $11 million dollars of rental relief for almost 5,000 households. POP uses Coronavirus Relief funds (CRF) allocated through HB20-1410 for landlords to apply for assistance on behalf of their tenants. A program-specific Housing Assistance Payment contract must be executed to receive payment. The following are programmatic clarifications and a few modifications to account for lessons learned and the recent CDC eviction moratorium:

Property Owners must submit either a signed CDC Declaration Form or the Tenant Certification of Need as the tenant portion of the application.
DOH will accept rental requests on the 5th of the month.
When requesting payment for months after the Property Owner’s initial request, only a new Rent Ledger is required. New Tenant Certifications of Need and Tenant Leases “are not” required.
All living expenses are allowed to be part of the request for payment. These include utilities, garage rent, and month-to-month expenses.
No late fees or penalties for late rent are allowed to be charged.
W-9 must be dated in 2020.

Governor Jared Polis issued Executive Order D 2020 202 on September 22, 2020 requiring all landlords to notify their tenants of the federal Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) order limiting evictions through December 31, 2020. The Executive Order states:

No individual shall file or initiate actions for forcible entry and detainer (i.e. eviction), including any demand for rent, under C.R.S. § 13-40-101, et seq., unless the individual has notified the tenant in writing of the federal protections against eviction provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Temporary Halt in Residential Evictions To Prevent the Further Spread of COVID-19. 85 FR 55292 (September 4, 2020). The individual must provide as notice a copy of the CDC’s order, including the declaration, available here.

DOH has prepared a model notification letter for landlords to use to inform their tenants about the CDC eviction protections. This letter can be found here or on the DOH website. In accordance with Executive Order 202, landlords also must provide a full copy of the CDC order, which can be found here and a copy of the CDC declaration form, which can be found here. HUD has translated the CDC declaration form into multiple languages, which can be found here.

DOH has updated its Frequently Asked Questions. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) ban on certain evictions impacts the answers to questions such as:

Can I be evicted if I don’t pay rent?
When can evictions begin again?
What should I do if I can’t pay rent?

See answers to these and several other questions here.

Please help spread the word. The expansion of the existing statewide Colorado Housing Connects program provides Colorado residents with access to free housing counselors, navigators, and eviction prevention legal services. Since launching September 1, 2020, Colorado Housing Connects has received more than 1,300 phone calls and had nearly 4,000 website pageviews.

These resources are available through coloradohousingconnects.org or calling the statewide hotline at 844-926-6632.