Latest news with #housingproviders
Forbes
02-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Colorado Legislation Thwarts Use Of AI In Rental Housing
Things are hard enough in the housing world without absurd solutions like banning housing providers from consulting the internet and artificial intelligence when managing their properties. Yes, this is exactly what the Colorado assembly passed with House Bill HB25-1004. The legislation makes it a crime for housing providers to use online platforms to gather information when setting rents. To understand how far this legislation tests what's reasonable, let's have a glass of lemonade. As summer is approaching, you and your friends decide to open a lemonade stand. You spend time costing things out; pricing lemons, sugar, and maybe some interesting adds like salt rims, and herb infusions. But there is one piece of data you don't have. How much are other lemonade stands charging? You wonder, 'Is there an app for that?' It turns out there is, and you check it out. There you can see all the lemonade stands in the city and in your neighborhood. It's a useful piece of information and helps you set the price when you consider your costs. What's nice is that because you're new, you can charge less than your competitor up the street who is charging $3 for a similar product. Because you have a good supplier, you're going to charge $2.65. Then a cop car pulls up. Turns out you've committed a crime by consulting the internet. Here's the bill with lemonade substitutions where appropriate. Read it and see if it makes any sense. The bill prohibits the sale or distribution for consideration of an algorithmic device if: The bill also prohibits the use of an algorithmic device by a person to set or recommend the price of lemonade, number of glasses, or other commercial term associated with the consumption of lemonade if: The bill also prohibits a person engaged in the business of providing algorithmic device services or products that are used to set or recommend the price of lemonade, number of glasses, or other commercial term associated with the consumption of lemonade from using nonpublic competitor data pertaining to lemonade stands in Colorado in algorithmic calculations. A violation is deemed to be an illegal restraint of trade or commerce and is punishable in accordance with the "Colorado State Antitrust Act of 2023". You have customers buying your product and the officer informs you that you need to stop because each time you sell a glass of your cheaper lemonade, you're triggering fines under the anti-trust act that range from $250,000 to $1,000,000 for each glass sold. Ignorance can be a strength, especially when it provokes strategic questions. Why is rent so high? How can we fix that? Answers to that question are obvious. When there is great demand for housing and there are few units, prices will go up. It's that simple. To address high prices, the answer always goes back to how can production be increased as well as variety in housing types and location. This is true of housing and lemonade stands and any other product people want to buy. And when people are setting a price for their product, they always seek out the best data, including consulting with colleagues and using technology, to set their prices. It's how lemonade stands work and any other business. As of this writing, Governor Polis has signed the legislation but is asking for a delay in implementation. And what's true is that rents have gone down in Colorado, dropping, on average in the state's largest city, Denver, from $1,875 to $1,819. Vacancy rates in Denver are up to 7% which is usually the standard vacancy rate factored in to most apartment project pro formas. If that is the average in Denver, it means many apartments have higher vacancy rates. With higher vacancy rates come lower prices. The assembly either doesn't understand how the world works, or doesn't want to know, or worse, doesn't care. It appears that Governor Polis understands that although he signed the bill, it isn't going to make much sense to implement it. In the end, the new law is grandstanding. But it could be worse than that, blinding housing providers from price information that could actually help them lower their prices at a time when competition between landlords to fill vacant apartments would benefit consumers. That's how markets work. And more information is better for everyone whether its housing or lemonade.
CBC
09-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Providers raise alarm about weapons, violence inside supportive housing
A group of housing providers says they can't easily enter rooms to confiscate weapons or evict tenants when weapons are found due to protections in the Residential Tenancy Act. As Katie DeRosa reports, they say removing the buildings from the Act would help keep staff and residents safe, but the province says while it's open to changes to the Act, it won't agree to that.
