2026-09-10 · Colorado · Legislation · Did not pass

A bipartisan bill that would have let Colorado homeowners associations apply for state natural-disaster mitigation money cleared its policy committee 7–2 and then died on cost. SB26-049 was laid over unamended in the Senate Committee on Appropriations on May 14, 2026, the day after the session adjourned sine die. Its status is Lost.¹

The consequence is a gap that matters most to exactly the communities least able to absorb it: Colorado condominium and townhome associations own the roofs, carry the master policy and hold the deductible, and remain ineligible for the state mitigation fund.

The one-line change that would have done it

Current C.R.S. 24-33.5-1619 limits an “eligible entity” of the natural disaster mitigation enterprise to “a governing subdivision of the state, including counties, municipalities, school districts, and special districts.” The bill would have added:

“(II) a homeowners' association or an individual homeowner that implements or intends to implement natural disaster mitigation measures.”²

It correspondingly rewrote the enterprise's business purpose to provide technical assistance to “local governments, homeowners' associations, and individual homeowners.”

Hard standards, not vague ones

The bill did not leave “mitigation” open-ended. New C.R.S. 24-33.5-1619(2)(f.5) defined “impact-resistant roofing material” as material “tested and certified through the Underwriters Laboratories 2218 standard for impact resistance of prepared roof covering materials as a class four material and designed for hail resistance.”

New paragraph (2)(h) defined a “property-specific mitigation action” as one “demonstrated by the ‘wildfire prepared home’ designation from the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety or by a similar mitigation program that includes a verification and certification process” — the same standard Colorado's live wildfire risk-score statute uses.

1. SB26-049, "Homeowner Natural Disaster Mitigation" — bill page, status, committee votes and fiscal notes, Colorado General Assembly ↩
2. SB26-049 introduced bill text (source of the quoted eligible-entity language, the UL 2218 Class 4 standard and the $50,000 cap) ↩
3. SB26-155 final act text, new C.R.S. 10-4-2001 through 10-4-2005 (the Strengthen Colorado Homes Enterprise) ↩
4. "End of the Line: Colorado 2026 Session Defined by Budget Deficit, Pending Turnover," Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck — session budget context ↩