Days after banning late fees on renters in Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis went a step further Wednesday and reinstated a state eviction moratorium.
Polis halted evictions when the coronavirus hit Colorado in early spring, but he allowed the moratorium to lapse in June. Then, in early September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a national eviction moratorium, which applied to most leases in Colorado and is set to expire at the end of this year.
That order has halted or delayed or most eviction proceedings, but some have continued. The CDC order allows landlords to take tenants to court, where judges are tasked with determining whether tenants in certain cases are in fact protected by the order.
Some landlords have been doing this, and eviction defense advocates have been adamant about the need for a state-level codification and expansion of the CDC order. Trade associations representing landlords have, on the other hand, opposed an eviction moratorium all along.
Through the end of this year, rental property owners can tap into a state housing assistance fund to recover lost rent payments.
In late summer, Polis convened a group of 10 experts with diverse backgrounds to deliver recommendations to address housing insecurity in Colorado. In the group’s report, released last week, seven of the 10 members supported a recommendation that Polis implement a state-level eviction moratorium.
“This step ensures Colorado has an order in place to protect Coloradans, in the event the CDC order fails (for example due to litigation or being rescinded),” wrote one member, Boulder Councilwoman Rachel Friend.
The order announced Wednesday bars landlords from pursuing eviction against anyone experiencing “financial hardship due to COVID-19.” To prove such hardship, by the governor’s definition, a person must be using “best efforts to obtain government assistance for rent or housing”; expect to make no more than $99,000 in income for 2020, or $198,000 for joint filers; be unable to make full rent due to a loss of work, among other acceptable crises; make good-faith attempts to pay as much rent as possible; and face a credible threat of homelessness.
Polis is requiring tenants facing “hardship” to prove it by filling out a form, under threat of perjury. His order directs state housing officials to draft a form for affected tenants to use.
The order applies to month-to-month tenancies, as well as longer-term arrangements. It does not apply if a tenant poses an “imminent and serious threat to another individual or causes significant damage to landlord’s property” — something a judge would have to determine.
Polis set the order to expire in 30 days, though he has regularly extended many COVID-related orders.
It in no way relieves tenants of their responsibility to pay rent.
Housing industry representatives have argued for months that this kind of action by Polis is unnecessary because more than nine in 10 renters in Colorado have paid monthly rent during the pandemic.
Drew Hamrick of the Colorado Apartment Association criticized the governor’s latest order, saying that landlords and tenants have been “finding ways to make things work” already during the pandemic. He called the order “a substantial move backwards.”
By issuing the order, Polis not only protects against the event that the CDC order is amended or rescinded, but he also sets a precedent. It is a certainty that eviction defense advocates, likely including some on his task force, will pressure him to keep the moratorium in place into 2021.
That’s because the problem of housing insecurity is projected to remain as the pandemic recession continues.
Wrote the task force, in its report to Polis, “Models based on unemployment predictions and cost burden suggest that between 150,000 and 230,000 Colorado households could be at risk of eviction by December 31, 2020.”
