HQS
The minimum criteria a unit must meet to be approved for a housing subsidy.
Housing Quality Standards
The annual process of recertifying a household's eligibility to remain subsidized. Includes verifying income, household composition, and any other required documents.
Annual Recertification Action
A department within the Colorado Department of Local Affairs that oversees state-administered housing programs, including voucher programs, supportive housing, and funding for housing development.
DOH (Division of Housing)
The responsibilities that landlords agree to when accepting tenants with vouchers. This includes compliance with fair housing laws, maintaining unit standards, and adhering to lease and program agreements.
Landlord Obligations
The suspension or withholding of HAP to a landlord due to a unit's failure to meet required Housing Quality Standards or other program compliance issues.
Abatement
The process when a household exits a housing program. This may be due to noncompliance, failure to recertify, voluntary withdrawal, or transition to a new program.
EOP (End of Participation)
A rental housing unit priced below the market and intended to be affordable to households with low to moderate incomes.
Affordable Housing Unit
A regional or local planning body that coordinates housing and services funding for families and individuals experiencing homelessness. CoC's often manage coordinated entry systems and prioritize housing resources.
CoC (Continuum of Care)
The process of locating and making initial contact with a household that has been referred or is eligible for housing navigation or voucher assistance.
Outreach
A feature of some tenant-based vouchers that allows a household to transfer their voucher to another jurisdiction, usually another city or state, where another PHA will administer it.
Port
The formal legal process through which a landlord removes a tenant from a rental unit.
Eviction
THe lead agency for the Metro Denver Continuum of Care, responsible for coordinating regional homeless response systems, managing coordinated entry, and administering federal and local housing resources.
MDHI (Metro Denver Homeless Initiative)
The process of documenting and responding to changes in household circumstances -- such as income, family size, or contract rent -- that occur outside of the annual recertification cycle.
Interim Action
A statistic published annually by HUD representing the midpoint of household incomes in a specific geographic area. This is used to determine eligibility and rent limits for affordable housing programs and vouchers, with income limits often expressed as percentages.
AMI (Area Median Income)
The federal agency that funds and regulates many housing programs, including Section 8 vouchers, Continuum of Care grants, and Housing First initiatives.
HUD (US Department of Housing and Urban Development)
The legal process of splitting a lease to remove a household member who has committed domestic violence, dating violence, or stalking -- while allowing the remaining eligible household members to retain their housing assistance.
Bifurcation
The process of using a voucher to subsidize a unit where the household already resides. This option helps to reduce displacement and fast tracks the leasing timeline, provided the current unit meets program and HQS requirements.
Lease Up In Place
A City of Denver department that manages and coordinates housing resources, homelessness services, and rental assistance programs aimed at increasing housing stability for residents experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
Department of Housing Stability