Denver housing briefing leaves questions about tax-relief reach, eviction filings

Denver officials told City Council on July 28 that the city had received nearly 3,900 applications for its property-tax relief program, paid about 2,600 and had roughly 375 pending. HOST also reported that its eviction legal-defense program served 3,584 households in 2025, as eviction filings reached 15,953.

The Community Planning and Housing Committee briefing produced no new council action. Members instead sought follow-up data on renters, younger homeowners, language access and racial and ethnic participation — questions the presentation did not resolve.

HOST staff said the tax-relief figures were current to mid-July and that most pending applications were from homeowners. Because the figures were rounded and staff did not provide a complete breakdown of denied, incomplete or otherwise unresolved applications, they do not establish a final approval rate or total payout.

Under the current program guidelines, homeowners must be at or below 80% of area median income and meet an age, disability, dependent-child or surviving-spouse condition. Renters must be at or below 30% of area median income and be at least 62 or have a disability. Both groups must have lived in the Denver home during the prior calendar year and paid the relevant housing costs in full.

Those rules reflect changes adopted for the 2025 rebate cycle: the homeowner income ceiling rose from 60% to 80% of area median income, the age threshold fell from 65 to 62, and surviving spouses were added. The city announced the expanded program May 1 and said applications would remain open through April 30, 2027, subject to limited funds and first-come, first-served processing. It reported that 3,336 residents received assistance the prior year, a figure not directly comparable with the mid-July counts.

Council members pressed HOST for information the tax-relief program does not consistently collect. Staff said renter vulnerability data were unavailable and more work was needed to determine whether Latino and other communities of color were being reached. Outreach includes recreation centers, Denver Housing Authority properties, in-person assistance, direct mail and council-district events. Staff said providers were at least bilingual in Spanish, the application was available in Spanish, and translation or interpretation contracts covered other languages, while acknowledging budget limits.

The briefing did not provide participation rates by race, ethnicity, language, renter status or age, or quantify how many younger homeowners were excluded under earlier rules. HOST said it would seek more equity data from providers and respond to a request about households qualifying through disability or dependent-child criteria. Staff said they could not readily produce the same analysis for people excluded solely by age.

The eviction-defense figures show the pressure on Denver renters. HOST said the program served 3,584 households in 2025 at an average cost of $681.87 per case. Seventy-eight percent were at or below 30% of area median income; 36.6% identified as Hispanic or Latino; 35% included a person with a disability; 11% included someone older than 62; and half were female-headed households.

Reported outcomes included dismissal in 33% of cases, an answer or other brief legal service in 35%, a stipulation agreement in 13%, a vacated judgment in 10% and a judgment for possession in 7%. The city said the program serves Denver County residents at or below 80% of area median income through limited and full representation.

The 15,953 eviction filings were not a count of unique households, staff cautioned. They were higher than the 8,863 filings reported for 2022 in a Denver tenant-legal-services data report, though the briefing did not provide a full methodology match. A separate HOST 2026 action plan identifies $17.6 million for rental assistance and eviction legal defense in 2026.

Writs restored — 2,333 in 2025 — are a different measure from filings and do not show how many filings ended in displacement. Council members asked whether repeat filings and the Sheriff’s capacity to execute writs affected the totals. Staff said they would follow up with the Sheriff’s Department and were working with contractors and the TruA program to understand the gap between filings and actual evictions. TruA allows renters to seek help after a rent demand and before a court filing, staff said.

The committee’s minutes record both briefings as informational presentations. The next developments are HOST’s promised follow-up data and the programs already in effect — the eligibility expansion and pre-filing assistance through TruA — not a decision made at the meeting.