As evictions in Colorado spike to pre-pandemic highs, thousands of low-income tenants may soon be able to virtually attend and contest looming evictions under a bill that passed the Colorado House in late March.
HB23-1186 would allow tenants to attend court hearings virtually and to respond to property owners’ filings digitally. The measure, which passed the House on a comfortable, party-line vote on March 20, also has provisions governing how to handle a tenant who disconnects from a virtual hearing.
The bill would have far-reaching impacts: More than 7,800 residents — 80% of them indigent — would participate in their own eviction cases that they otherwise wouldn’t have, according to a fiscal analysis of the bill using state Judicial Department data. That’s significant, advocates say, because tenants often have no representation in eviction proceedings and typically don’t participate, meaning they lose by default.
“If you are facing an eviction and you live miles and miles and miles from the nearest courthouse and you cannot go because of whatever reason, this is a way for you to say, ‘I can stay in my home, I can show up to my hearing, and I don’t have to get put on the path to homelessness,’” said Rep. Iman Jodeh, who’s sponsoring the measure with fellow Aurora Democratic Rep. Mandy Lindsay.
The bill would extend what became largely standard during the throes of the pandemic: virtual participation in court hearings. Jodeh noted that lawmakers were able to debate and vote on their bills remotely during the pandemic. The shift in courtrooms, along with other pandemic-era housing protections, had a meaningful impact for tenants: According to a 2022 analysis published by Enterprise Community Partners, only 5% to 7% of Colorado tenants facing eviction filed responses to landlords’ claims before the pandemic. That figure more than doubled by early 2021, amid new legal protections and virtual options.
The outcome of those hearings also improved for tenants during the pandemic, Enterprise’s review found. Between 2017 and 2019, roughly 70% of cases ended in judgments for the property owner. After the pandemic began, that dropped to 58% in 2020 and 52% in early 2021, thanks to a variety of emergency-driven protections and changes.
The measure comes amid a broader focus on housing at the Capitol this year. A battery of pro-tenant bills — allowing for rent control, limiting evictions and prohibiting certain rental provisions — have all passed the House. Meanwhile, Gov. Jared Polis has backed a sweeping land-use reform measure that seeks to increase the state’s housing supply.
Critics of the pro-tenant bills have said they will have increase costs and further limit supply. Critics of HB23-1186 echoed that: Ellie Reynolds, of the Colorado Manufactured Housing Coalition — which opposes the bill — criticized lawmakers in a statement.
“At a time where legislators have repeatedly stated their desire to bring down the cost of housing, bills like this do the exact opposite, making it more costly and time-consuming to evict a bad tenant,” she said.
But another frequent critic of those pro-tenant bills — the Colorado Apartment Association — has taken a neutral stance on the bill, senior vice president Drew Hamrick said, despite some concerns about details and implementation.
As Colorado emerges from the pandemic, its courts are returning to their status quo of in-person meetings, albeit with some varying virtual options, advocates said. Evictions are also returning to their pre-pandemic levels, as eviction moratoriums have expired and rental aid runs dry: They increased by 45% — to more than 3,800 — between December 2021 to December 2022, according to state data.
“What we are seeing now is — and this is true pre-COVID — is that unfortunately a significant number of people who simply cannot participate in person … automatically lose their eviction because of that,” said Jack Regenbogen, the deputy executive director at the Colorado Poverty Law Project, which supports the bill.
The bill is set for its next hearing — in the Senate’s finance committee — on April 4.
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