New houses go up in Minturn, Colorado.
Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily
Colorado is launching a one-stop shop for affordable housing developers to access funding and resources in a bid to speed up projects and cut down on costs.
Gov. Jared Polis, alongside state housing leaders, announced the initiative, which they are calling Housing Hub Colorado, earlier this week. In a statement, Polis said the effort will “save people, and local communities, time and money when building new homes in Colorado.”
Developers can access the site at HousingHubcolorado.com.
The idea was born out of the Housing Consortium, a coalition of over 100 private and public sector leaders that launched earlier this year to find solutions to the state’s housing challenges. That includes ways to reduce the paperwork needed to access critical funding.
Affordable housing developers often rely on various funding streams, including state and federal tax credits, to make their projects viable. A joint organization survey of project leaders who have applied for housing tax credits in the last two years found centralizing those resources would be a major way to reduce project timelines and costs.
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Eighty-five percent of respondents said a statewide application for public funding would be the biggest opportunity for improving the process of applying for affordable housing funding, while 65% said that applying for multiple funding sources for tax credit projects has a large impact on timelines and puts their projects at risk.
“Ultimately, we want to create the Amazon of affordable housing finance in our state and make it as easy as possible to build, with the hopes that it saves money for Coloradans,” said Maria De Cambra, executive director of the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, in a statement.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis speaks to reporters during a news conference in Denver on Oct. 22, 2025. Polis has made housing a key issue of his second term.Robert Tann/Vail Daily
The state is launching the new Housing Hub Colorado in two phases.
As of this week, developers will have access to a centralized website with instructions, timelines and resources for applying for rental project tax credits and other related funding. The state is also launching common application spreadsheets and aligned questions across its housing agencies, a streamlined pre-application for the Department of Local Affairs that removes financial letters of interest and reduces required fields, and a unified timeline for funding opportunities to help developers prepare.
The initiative’s second phase will include a common application for funding sources for housing developers that utilize tax credits, which is set to launch next year. The state is also hoping to expand those efforts to other housing programs, including homeownership programs.
Efforts to streamline housing funds and resources have been key priorities for pro-housing advocates seeking to increase the state’s housing stock.
The two leading Democratic candidates for Colorado governor in 2026, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Attorney General Phil Weiser, have both called for similar initiatives as part of their affordable housing agenda.
Bennet said he wants to create a single application for developers to access funding, while Wesier pledged to sign executive orders on his first day in office to streamline housing programs, eliminate redundancies and coordinate all of the state’s housing efforts.
The efforts continue to highlight the urgency state leaders feel in delivering more housing to counter the soaring price of rent and homeownership.
A recent study from the State Demography Office found that housing costs continue to outpace wage growth. As of 2023, home prices were up 223% compared to their values in 2000, while rents rose 164%. During that same period, personal income only increased 144%, and 2023 saw the largest housing affordability gap on record since 2000, according to the report.
The study did find that Colorado has started to shrink its housing deficit, due in part to slower population growth and increased development. As of 2023, the state needed approximately 106,000 homes to meet demand, down from a peak of 140,000 in 2019.
Polis, in his second and final term as Colorado governor, has exerted more pressure on local governments to increase housing supply.
A major land-use reform law that he championed last year has gone into effect, loosening density and parking requirements for most populous Front Range cities — though the measure does not impact rural mountain areas. Polis signed an executive order in May that could withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding from local governments for other initiatives, like transit and energy, if those communities don’t adhere to the new housing laws.
State lawmakers are also continuing to push more housing legislation to Polis’ desk, including measures this year to reform construction defect litigation laws in a bid to boost condominium development and create regional building codes for factory-built homes.
