Colorado residents are unhappy with a recent policy designed to help renters in Telluride, which is reportedly backfiring. Rising rents have been a major problem in the United States over the past few decades, and a program that links rent to total household earnings is the latest failed attempt to solve this crisis in the Colorado town.
As reported by The Colorado Sun, in 2023, local officials discovered that over half of the tenants in the city’s housing complexes were out of compliance because they earned too much to qualify for subsidized housing. This prompted the town to launch a program overhauling annual rent increases by linking them to income, with tenants contributing 30% of their income toward rent.
However, this caused a few problems. Some of the most common issues involve counting a child’s income as part of the household total when determining rent; even if one person is the main provider, all income in the home is included, which can push rents much higher. This led to significant price spikes and effectively forced some families out of the city, with rents increasing by as much as 50% in a single year.
Colorado Residents Slam Real Estate Regulation Harming Renters
These reports horrified Colorado locals, as many slammed the regulation as unfair and feared that something similar could be implemented in their cities.
One seemingly angry Colorado resident said, “I understand the means testing, but setting rent at 30% of gross income, the exact maximum amount the federal government says people should pay for rent, seems like a poor choice.” Someone else responded, “I don’t know if it would be better to lower it to 20% of gross or 30% of net, but that is tough. Also, a carve-out excluding dependents’ income should be pretty easy. Just cause your kid makes 20k a year shouldn’t increase your rent by 6k.”
One person who read the reports believed they painted a grim picture of the city: “So disheartening to read about a parent waking up at 7 am, getting home at 11 pm, and barely scraping by. Not even enough time to possibly get a good night’s rest.” Others were not surprised, saying that “ski towns are rough for everyone but owners and guests.”
The overall sentiment was that rent was far too high everywhere: “These people are deluded. Why is my rent higher than my parents’ mortgage?” In any case, the failed experiment in Telluride seems like a dire warning for Colorado politicians, as it shows how easily poorly thought-out legislation can backfire on the people it is supposed to help.
