Section 8 Housing in Denver, CO

Metro Denver is served by several public housing authorities, and none of the big three has an open general voucher list right now. The Denver Housing Authority does not run a traditional waitlist at all. Instead it holds an online interest lottery once a year, and your entry expires December 31, so you must re-register every year. The most recent DHA lottery was open just two days, September 19-20, 2025. Being selected is not guaranteed; DHA has stated each applicant has roughly a 6% chance in the lottery. The Housing Authority of the City of Aurora has its tenant-based and project-based voucher lists closed with no anticipated opening date, and applications go through its online RentCafe applicant portal when a list opens. Maiker Housing Partners in Adams County runs a lottery too; its most recent HCV lottery opened and closed on a single day, March 5, 2026. Because each PHA operates independently and Colorado has more than 68 housing authorities, apply to every list you are eligible for and sign up for each agency's email opening alerts.

Even after you win a lottery slot, expect a long wait. At the start of 2024, Denver Housing Authority managed 7,990 vouchers with 7,431 households actually holding one, and those households had waited an average of 17 months to get their voucher. Demand far exceeds supply across the metro. Emergency Housing Vouchers, which some agencies used during the pandemic, have all been allocated in the metro area; if you are literally homeless (outside, in a car, or in shelter), your path is the Coordinated Entry System through One Home rather than a standard voucher application. To qualify for a voucher in the Denver-Aurora-Centennial area, your income generally must fall at or below the very low income limit, which HUD set at $70,050 for a family of four for FY2025, against an area median family income of $140,100. Households at extremely low income (30% AMI) often get priority. Statewide data shows voucher holders skew toward people with disabilities: the Denver Metro Fair Housing Center found 82% of Colorado voucher holders live in a household with at least one person with a disability.

Colorado is one of the stronger source-of-income states. Under HB20-1332, effective January 1, 2021, a landlord cannot refuse to rent to you simply because you use a Housing Choice Voucher. Originally the law exempted landlords with three or fewer units, and single-family-home owners with five or fewer homes were not required to accept vouchers. That changed. HB25-1240, effective May 29, 2025, removed the small-landlord exemption, so declining to accept a subsidy is now treated as a fair housing violation and landlords must cooperate in good faith with the housing authority, including completing paperwork promptly. A separate 2023 law, SB23-184, capped the minimum income a landlord can require at 200% of the rent, meaning a landlord cannot demand you earn three or four times the rent, a common way vouchers were screened out. If a landlord flatly says 'no Section 8,' that is illegal in Colorado and worth reporting.

The law is strong on paper, but enforcement is uneven and the burden often falls on you to report. Fair housing advocates, including the Denver Metro Fair Housing Center, say some landlords still skirt the source-of-income law through tactics like high application fees, strict credit or background screening, or simply stalling on voucher paperwork. Source-of-income complaints have historically made up only a small share of state housing discrimination complaints, in part because voucher holders are racing against their voucher's search clock and don't want the delay of filing. Keep records of every 'we don't take vouchers' response, every text or email, and every application fee. Those records are what turn a rejection into an enforceable complaint. Both the Colorado Civil Rights Division and private nonprofits like the Denver Metro Fair Housing Center and Colorado Poverty Law Project can investigate and, in some cases, sue on your behalf.

Voucher holders in metro Denver tend to concentrate in the more affordable outer neighborhoods, especially the far northeast. Montbello and Gateway-Green Valley Ranch have historically been lower-income, more affordable parts of Denver along the I-70 corridor, with a large Hispanic/Latino population and, in Montbello's case, a long-standing food-desert designation. These areas have more units within voucher payment standards but fewer amenities like full-service grocery stores. Central and northwest neighborhoods like Capitol Hill, RiNo, LoHi, and Highland carry much higher rents that often exceed voucher payment standards, so a voucher goes further in the suburbs and outer neighborhoods. When you search, use the DHA voucher payment standard for your bedroom size as your ceiling. A Denver property-management summary listed local payment standards of roughly $2,140 for a two-bedroom and $2,794 for a three-bedroom, but confirm the current figure with your issuing PHA because payment standards and utility allowances change annually. Sites like AffordableHousing.com and Colorado Housing Search list voucher-accepting units.