Colorado's Rent Control Bill

Colorado Senate Bill 19-225, introduced this month, aims to end the statewide ban on local governments implementing rent control by offering counties and municipalities the option to come up with their own rent stabilization policies.

The bill's detractors say that it will cut housing supply and run up costs in the long-term, protecting renters only until they have to move, and forcing younger renters to face higher rents than would otherwise exist, The Denver Post reports. Bill backers say that rent control efforts would keep rents in check as the market syncs up with local population growth, and would allow tenants and landlords more time to prepare for any rent hikes.

And it is more than symbolic that one of the bill’s sponsors hails from Boulder County, where the initial effort that resulted in the ban got started. Sen. Mike Foote, D-Lafayette, also chairs the state Senate’s State, Veterans & Military Affairs committee, which will take up the bill Monday.

Each side has studies supporting their view: proponents from the University of California Berkeley and opponents from Stanford. Both agree that housing costs are consuming an inordinate amount of household budgets. They disagree sharply on how to resolve the problem.

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