Gov. Jared Polis has signed into law a proposal that would prohibit landlords from evicting tenants unless they can show “cause,” as defined by the new statute.   

Democrats have advocated for the measure for two years. In the last session, a similar measure died in the Senate after Polis said he wouldn’t endorse it.

This year’s House Bill 1098 narrowly made it through the Senate last month in a 19-15 vote.

Supporters said the legislation would curb needless evictions in Colorado, while critics argued it would negatively affect landlords and infringe upon the rights of landowners to use their property however they want.

Under the bill, landlords are prohibited from evicting tenants without justifiable “cause,” which includes “unlawful detention” of a property or a tenant causing a nuisance in the community.  

The bill also outlines circumstances under which a “no-fault” eviction can occur, such as if a home is being demolished or converted, the landlord or their family member is moving into the property, or if a tenant has a history of not paying rent or violating the lease.

Two of the bill’s sponsors said they both experienced homelessness due to eviction.

House Majority Leader Monica Duran, D- Wheat Ridge, a survivor of domestic abuse and who struggled to make ends meet as a single mother upon leaving her abuser, said she was eventually evicted from her home — not because she had done anything wrong but because her landlord no longer wanted to rent to her.

“I had abided by my lease provisions, paid my rent on time, and didn’t deserve to be evicted,” she said. “My son was forced to leave his school and his friends, which was the only stable environment he knew. My son and I were homeless. No mother or child should repeatedly endure this kind of anxiety and stress, and with the governor signing this bill today, we protect future Coloradans from experiencing what I did.”

When Rep. Javier Mabrey, D- Denver, said when he was a teenager, he and his mother were evicted from their home in southwest Denver. The family lived out of their car, and Mabrey said he was forced to drop out of high school. He eventually earned his GED and became an eviction lawyer, he said, adding he witnessed families subjected to “injustices” deemed perfectly legal by the courts.

“I have been in court and gotten evidence of racial discrimination admitted on the record to the point where a judge agreed with me that racial discrimination occurred, and that same judge said an eviction had to be ordered because it wasn’t a defense,” he said. 

Critics earlier countered that the measure paints a very broad brush.

Rural lawmakers said the problem with evictions “without cause” is an urban one — but the measure applies a statewide solution that isn’t necessary for their districts.

In February, Rep. Richard Holtorf, R-Akron, also said: “The best way to not have a problem in this space with respect to eviction number one is to pay your rent on time, number two is to not violate the conditions of the contract that you signed.”  

Sens. Julie Gonzales, D- Denver, and Nick Hinrichsen, D- Pueblo, introduced the bill in the Senate.