The Division of Housing’s Building Codes & Standards Section (BCS) has been working to implement HB22-1242, which went into effect on August 10, 2022. This bill primaraily establishes the regulation of “tiny homes” manufactured for use in Colorado to begin on July 1, 2023.

• The bill requires three new members be appointed to the 12-member Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) charged with recommending construction and installation codes to be adopted by the State Housing Board. Two of the members are from the tiny home industry and one from energy conservation. The two positions from the tiny home industry have been filled. DOH is still working to fill the energy conservation position.
• The TAC held its first meeting on November 1 to begin the process of recommending construction and installation codes/standards for consideration by the State Housing Board in the form of proposed rules at a rulemaking hearing scheduled for May 9, 2023. The TAC met for a second time on November 15 and will meet 10 more times through the end of March in order to finalize its proposed rules to be considered by the Board along with written and verbal testimony from the public in response to the proposed rules.

Keep a lookout: BCS will be posting an Administrative IV position to help implement HB22-1242 and to oversee the regulation of tiny homes. BCS will also eventually fill positions for an Engineer, Inspector, and Program Assistant as a result of this bill.

HB22-1282 went into effect on May 20, 2022, and it establishes a $40 million Innovative Housing Incentive Program (IHIP) to incentivize the construction and installation of prefabricated homes in Colorado, e.g. modular homes and tiny homes. IHIP will be housed under the Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT). OEDIT has drafted guidelines for IHIP, received public input in response to the draft guidelines, and is currently working to finalize them by mid-November. DOH staff members are assisting OEDIT with this process along with other members of the IHIP interagency group convened to implement this program. The bill also directs OEDIT to consult with DOH in the establishment of its loan application process and to collaborate with DOH in the consideration of loan applications and the awarding of any loan funds.

DOH, Enterprise, and Community Builders recently completed five outreach sessions with stakeholders throughout Colorado, broken down by market type, and heard insightful feedback to help formulate the new, improved and more comprehensive Toolkit for Local Officials. DOH will be crafting the application with Enterprise and Community Builders soon, which will likely be through Neighborly or directly via email.

This toolkit is for elected local officials or local government employees only. The Local Officials Toolkit is intended to help local communities identify possible housing opportunities and streamline their processes to achieve housing faster. DOH expects there to be two types of technical assistance available, light and heavy touch. Lighter touch technical assistance will be available through what’s being considered a “call center”, where local governments can call for assistance with minor affordable housing related issues. DOH expects this to be available toward the end of this year. For communities wanting more intensive technical assistance, DOH will solicit applications early 2023.
The format for the toolkit is shaping up to be:

1. Affordable Housing 101 – high-level overview of affordable housing, i.e. “What is affordability?”, explanations of the housing continuum, etc, geared towards educating local officials who may have only had to consider the affordable housing crisis recently in their public work.
2. Affordable Housing Trainings – initially conceived of as a 1/2 to 3/4 day training that would be a deeper dive into the financing of affordable housing in the first half, and focused on policies that incentivize affordable housing in the second half. DOH heard from folks around the state that dividing this up into focused, hour long, digestible chunks would be more desirable and doable for local officials. DOH is also considering half-day, in-person trainings that will deal with issues in specific regions around the state.
3. Online web resource – DOH will host a web-based resource similar to CHFA’s Developers Guide, but focused on policy rather than the development process.
4. Technical Assistance – see above.

Save the Date (Nov. 15-16) for the next Supportive Housing Outreach Session, sponsored by the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority and DOH. This is not the Full PSH Toolkit but rather a 1-day high level overview of what it takes to do supportive housing in Colorado (Nov. 15, 2022) and an opportunity on the 2nd day for a 1:1 (1-hour long with each group) project concept meeting with representatives from BeauxSimone Consulting and DOH (Nov. 16, 2022).

Please click on the image above to view the full flier, and, if you are interested in registering, please do so here.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Suenary at suenary@beauxsimone.com.