Denver — Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet and Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.), members of the Senate Finance Committee, reintroduced the updated Eviction Crisis Act of 2026. This legislation would address our urgent national eviction crisis, creating an emergency rental assistance program to reduce preventable evictions and making it easier for American families to stay securely housed.
“Today, an illness, a car accident, or a family emergency can lead to a family being evicted from their home and falling into a cycle of poverty,” said Bennet. “The hardship caused by eviction is agonizing for the millions of American families facing it every year, and that harm reverberates across our communities. As a former school superintendent, I saw kids unable to stay awake in class because they didn’t have a stable place to sleep the night before. I’ve heard from many Coloradans about how one misstep led to their lives falling apart. Our Eviction Crisis Act will both prevent eviction and limit the harm when it is unavoidable.”
“Many families are one unexpected expense away from losing the stability that comes with having a place to call home,” said Young. “The Eviction Crisis Act would help prevent avoidable evictions by better coordinating tenants, landlords, and municipalities to address housing instability before it becomes a crisis. Passing this bill will help more Hoosiers families stay in their homes.”
Our country’s eviction crisis is driven by a national affordable housing shortage that is particularly acute for low-income renters. In 2024, the Congressional Research Service calculated that 49.4 percent of renter households spent more than 30 percent of household income on housing costs and 26.2 percent of renter households spent more than half. Denver recorded 15,953 eviction filings in 2025, just seven fewer than the city’s record set in 2024 and 72 percent above pre-pandemic levels. The Colorado Judicial Branch also reported 41,482 sheriff-involved evictions in county courts in fiscal year 2024.
Additionally, the Eviction Crisis Act of 2026 will improve data and analysis on evictions, reduce preventable evictions, mitigate eviction-related consequences, and strengthen protections for renters in tenant screening reports.
“Eviction isn’t just a consequence of poverty; it’s a cause of poverty. Yet we allow millions of Americans to face the threat of eviction each year. Families with children are at particularly high risk of eviction. Many evicted families lose their home and possessions, often falling into homelessness. Research shows that eviction thwarts economic mobility and is linked to long-term negative health outcomes. Passing the Eviction Crisis Act would be a big step forward, deepening our understanding of the problem and preventing families from the devastating consequences of displacement. Everyone needs a safe and affordable home. I commend Senators Bennet and Young for their efforts and look forward to working with them to pass this bill into law,” said Matthew Desmond, scholar and Pulitzer Prize Winning author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.
“Solving America’s housing and homelessness crisis must begin with addressing the forces that drive displacement. Getting people into homes they don’t yet have is urgent and critical, but we cannot focus only on pulling families out of homelessness; we must keep them from losing their homes in the first place. The Eviction Crisis Act recognizes that eviction prevention must be made as central a national priority as housing production, stepping in before a temporary setback becomes a life-altering disruption and breaking the momentum of loss before it hardens into permanence,” said Brian Goldstone, journalist and Pulitzer Prize Winning Author of There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America.
“We’re honored to continue this critically important work with Senator Bennet to support low-income renters who are struggling with rising housing costs due to inflation, lack of housing supply, and a failure to invest in households with the greatest need. Homelessness doesn’t happen in a vacuum but is a direct result of housing instability due to rising housing costs and the lack of support for low-income households who are struggling every day to make ends meet. Making investments like the ones proposed by the Eviction Crisis Act will not only help our most marginalized households stay stably housed, it’s a better use of taxpayer resources than expensive spending demanded by the emergency services required to address homelessness,” said Cathy Alderman, Chief Communications and Public Policy Officer for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.
“BPC Action commends Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Todd Young (R-IN) for leading the Eviction Crisis Act, which would create an emergency assistance program for at-risk households, establish a national evictions database, and fund community courts and diversion programs. For too many families, unexpected hardship—such as job loss or medical expenses—makes rent unaffordable, triggering homelessness and poverty cycles. This legislation is a necessary investment to stabilize housing and economic opportunity, and we look forward to working with Congress to enact it,” said Michele Stockwell, President of Bipartisan Policy Center Action.
“The new version of the Eviction Crisis Act will help communities prevent homelessness and provide important data that will take that work further in coming years. The bill will mean older adults, families with children, young people, people with disabilities, and others at the greatest risk will have more stable housing, an essential element for addressing other issues. We are grateful to Representative Bennet for his longstanding commitment to better housing for Americans,” said Ann Oliva, Chief Executive Officer, National Alliance to End Homelessness.
“For millions of households, one broken-down car, one unexpected medical bill, or a reduction in work hours could result in an eviction. The ‘Eviction Crisis Act,’ developed and advanced by NLIHC’s Opportunity Starts at Home campaign, would help to ensure that renters will not lose their homes because of a single unforeseen expense. No one should have to face losing their home because of one temporary financial setback. I applaud Senators Michael Bennet and Todd Young for their leadership in introducing this important legislation and advancing meaningful solutions to the national housing crisis. I urge Congress to pass this bill quickly,” said Renee M. Willis, President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Bennet has consistently fought for practical solutions to our nation’s eviction and housing affordability crisis; originally introducing the Eviction Crisis Act in 2019.
In April 2026, Bennet led 17 of his colleagues in urging the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development to expand eviction prevention legal assistance. In the letter, Bennet and his colleagues request $50 million for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Eviction Protection Grant Program. In August 2022, Bennet and Senator John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) led a group of lawmakers urging the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to take several steps to enact stronger protections for residents living in mobile home parks, also called Manufactured Housing Communities, backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the FHFA oversees. In May 2022, Bennet called on the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations to increase funding for successful housing programs that help prevent evictions and boost the country’s housing supply in the fiscal year 2023 appropriations bill. That same month, Bennet and Young led a bipartisan group of lawmakers in a letter to the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service requesting swift finalization of the average income test rule under the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program. In March 2022, Bennet and Hickenlooper joined former Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), and several bipartisan colleagues in urging the U.S. Treasury Department not to change Emergency Rental Assistance 2 guidelines for states like Colorado that have met the ERA requirements set by Congress.
In October 2021, Bennet joined a group of his colleagues in a letter to Former President Joe Biden, Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) urging them to ensure that comprehensive housing investments remain in the Build Back Better plan. In February 2020, Bennet and Former House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) introduced the Legal Assistance to Prevent Evictions Act, bicameral legislation to keep more Americans in their homes by establishing a competitive grant program to provide legal assistance at no cost to eligible tenants facing eviction.
The text of the bill is available HERE. A summary of the bill is available HERE. Additional supportive quotes from organizations are available HERE.
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