Colorado Homes for All

7190 Colorado Blvd Suite 400

Commerce City, CO, 80022

April 9, 2026

Dear Honorable Candidates for Governor of Colorado in 2026, 

As local elected officials, we all ran for elected office to stand up for what we believe in and work to make Colorado a better state for all who live here. People across the state are struggling to keep up with rising housing costs. We believe that together, with the right tools, we can address this. We can ensure that everyone, regardless of how much money they have or what zip code they live in, has a safe and stable home that they can afford.

Unfortunately, right now, growing numbers of Coloradans are being priced out of their homes. We've seen corporate landlords buy up an increasing share of apartments, mobile home parks, and single family homes in our communities. Driven by both stagnating incomes and skyrocketing rent increases over the past decade, many are being forced to make inhumane decisions like cutting down on food or medicine just to keep a roof over their heads. In 2025, a household would have had to work 99 hours per week at a minimum wage job to afford a 2-bedroom apartment. As a result, nearly half of all renters in the state are cost burdened, including 22.9% who are severely cost burdened. In addition, between 2023 and 2024, Colorado saw a 29.6% increase in homelessness, and a staggering 134% increase in the number of people in families with children experiencing homelessness – some of the largest increases across the nation. The current situation is untenable.

Across the state, local elected officials like us need every tool available to address the housing needs of our communities, including the ability to pass rent stabilization measures that protect tenants from unreasonable rent increases while still allowing landlords a fair return. We ask that you, as a candidate for Colorado's next Governor, publicly commit to overturn the prohibition on local rent stabilization policies. Passing Local Control of Rents in Colorado will ensure that we have sufficient policy tools to respond to the needs in our communities and keep families housed.

We appreciate the efforts being made by the state of Colorado to support the financing and construction of new affordable units as a key part of the overall solution – but it’s just one tool. Our constituents are struggling with the extremely high and rising cost of rent today. We can’t wait for 20+ years until we have enough new housing built that working people can actually afford. That is why we need you to not only support our work to build more affordable housing, but give us back the power to pass local rent stabilization policies that ensure the cost of rental housing, whether designated as affordable or not, remains reasonable.

Colorado has long been a pioneer in the tradition of local control, as it provides each municipality the capacity to maintain and enhance the quality of life and the characteristics that make each place unique—including, of course, the possibility of working people to continue living there. Our ability to create local policies to cap unreasonable rent increases, one of the most important aspects of our constituents' lives, should be no different. 

We need Colorado's next Governor to stand with us and the thousands of renters in our communities. Please put the power back into the hands of local elected officials and residents, so that we can adopt the housing policies we need to ensure safe, sustainable and affordable communities. 

Sincerely,