A Home That Feels Like Home: Rep. Brooks’ Commitment to Colorado’s IDD Community

For many Coloradans with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), housing is not simply hard to find. It is hard to find the right kind of housing. Housing that is safe. Housing that is stable. Housing that supports independence while keeping people connected to their community.

HB26-1061 exists because people with IDD deserve more than “best effort.” They deserve a clear pathway to real homes in real neighborhoods, with real opportunities to belong. This bill is designed to strengthen community integration housing by aligning Colorado’s affordable housing tax credit process with projects that intentionally serve the IDD community.

HB26-1061 focuses on practical outcomes. It creates a targeted priority in Colorado’s administration of affordable housing tax credits for “community integration housing” that serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It requires setting aside at least 10 percent of the state’s annual competitive federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits for these developments, while still allowing credits to be reallocated if the set-aside is not fully utilized. It also directs priority treatment in the state's affordable housing tax credit process for qualifying projects.

This is about more than units on a spreadsheet. It is about families who worry about what happens when they are no longer able to provide full-time support. It is about adults with IDD who want a life with dignity and choice. It is about building housing that makes independence possible, without cutting people off from services, relationships, and community life.

Rep. Brooks approaches this work with the heart of a local leader who has been in the trenches of housing. As a Castle Rock Town Councilmember, he serves as the Town’s liaison to the Douglas County Housing Partnership, work that keeps him close to the realities of housing supply, affordability, and the partnerships required to deliver results.

Some of his local work is visible in the public record as housing-focused engagement, including participation in local affordable housing efforts and attention to how projects serve residents who need stability and support.

Here is the honest truth about what I could confirm online. I can verify Rep. Brooks’ formal Town Council roles connected to housing, including his liaison position with the Douglas County Housing Partnership. I did not find public, citable sources that itemize “all” of his specific IDD-focused actions as a Castle Rock Town Councilmember by name, date, and program. If you have links, meeting clips, photos, or bullet points from his office, I can incorporate them precisely and attribute them accurately.

Even without those extra materials, the mission of HB26-1061 is clear. We are committed to moving this forward. We are already engaging stakeholders to get it right, including housing developers, service providers, community-centered boards, case management partners, advocates, and families. We want the bill to produce housing that actually works for the people it is meant to serve, not housing that looks good on paper.

If you are part of the ID community, or you serve it, your voice matters here. If you have experienced the barriers, the waitlists, the dead ends, we want to hear it. HB26-1061 is about protecting people, honoring their humanity, and expanding the number of doors that open instead of closing.