As tornado victims in northern Colorado begin to rebuild, the search is on for housing for those who can't move back home until their homes are repaired or rebuilt.

Teams from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs are in Northern Colorado helping families find housing, and ColoradoHousingSearch.com will be one of their most important tools. The web site is a free listing service that allows landlords to list rental properties, and
helps renters to find units.

The service is traditionally geared toward listing for-sale and for-rent units that middle-income and low-income households can afford. But, the service has also been used to find housing for disaster victims of all income levels. ColoradoHousingSearch.com was used to help Hurricane Katrina victims who had relocated to Colorado.

The Department of Local Affairs is now using the service to help victims of the recent tornadoes in northern Colorado, but needs more local landlords to list their rental properties.

"We have dozens of households right now who need a place to stay before their homes and apartment buildings can be made livable again," said Kathi Williams, Director of the Department of Local Affairs' Division of Housing. "However, we need more landlords to tell us where the empty units are so that we can point families in the right direction."

Williams noted that the newly homeless families have can obtain funding for temporary housing either through insurance or by registering with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but that finding the most appropriate unit for each family continues to be a challenge.

Any property owners interested in renting to tornado victims should visit ColoradoHousingSeach.com. Those with questions or problems with internet access should call the Colorado Division of Housing at (303) 866-3781 or 1-877-428-8844. It is always free to list or view properties at ColoradoHousingSearch.com, and units do not need to be subsidized or be considered officially "affordable."

Colorado Housing Search is funded by The Colorado Division of Housing, The Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, The City and County of Denver, and the Rural Development office of the United States Department of Agriculture.