C.R.S. § 24-32-3901: Legislative declaration.

(1) The general assembly finds and declares that:

(a) Homelessness is on the rise in Colorado. There were more than thirteen thousand individuals experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2024. In 2024, more than fifty-two thousand eight hundred individuals sought housing and services related to homelessness through the Colorado homeless management information system's partner agencies.

(b) Individuals experiencing homelessness in the seven-county Denver-Metro area cited relationship problems or breakups, inability to find or maintain a job, family issues, inability to pay rents or mortgages, and cost of housing as the top reasons contributing to homelessness.

(c) As of 2024, Colorado was the eighth least affordable state in the nation according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The coalition found that, to pay for a one-bedroom home, a Colorado renter must either make sixty-five thousand dollars a year or work eighty-five hours a week making minimum wage. Forty percent of individuals experiencing homelessness have paying jobs, and only one in four individuals who qualify for rental subsidies receive them.

(d) According to the Colorado Futures Center, nearly half of Colorado households have annual incomes below seventy-five thousand dollars. These households must spend an outsized portion of their earnings on housing, representing over five billion dollars in foregone spending in other sectors of Colorado's economy.

(e) Housing instability is at an all-time high, and there is a deficit of affordable homes in Colorado. For individuals in Colorado earning thirty percent or less of the area median income, there are only twenty-seven available homes that are considered affordable for every one hundred homes needed.

(f) Colorado lacks adequate statewide strategies designed to resolve and prevent homelessness. Colorado could benefit from improved infrastructure to convene state agencies, local governments, continuums of care, nonprofits, and other housing organizations to implement homelessness solutions.

(g) By directing the department of local affairs to present a plan for a statewide strategy on homelessness prevention and resolution, the general assembly intends to bring together diverse entities that will work to reduce and prevent homelessness in Colorado.