Colorado Address Confidentiality Program (ACP)

Start to finish: your path to a protected address

Written the way you'd actually walk it. Every link below goes straight to the official state program — confirmed live July 2026.

• 1 · Safety first — before anything else. If someone may monitor your phone or computer, use a safer device (a library computer, a trusted friend's phone). This page has a Quick Exit button at the top. If you're in immediate danger, call 911. For safety planning right now, our Safety & Victim Resources hub lists 24/7 hotlines and every DA victim advocate in Colorado.
• 2 · Check that you qualify. The ACP covers survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking/harassment — plus protected healthcare workers and patients who fear for their safety. You must live in Colorado and have moved within the last 90 days or be planning to move to an address the other person doesn't know. Everyone in your household can enroll with you. Helpful evidence: police reports, protection orders, a letter from an advocate, counselor, medical provider, or clergy. Official eligibility page ↗
• 3 · Protect the new address before it exists on paper. The program shields your new address — it can't erase one that's already public. So: don't put the new address on anything yet (leases where avoidable, deliveries, school forms, USPS mail forwarding). Enroll first, then hand out only the substitute address.
• 4 · Meet a certified Application Assistant — the only door in. You cannot apply to the state directly. Application Assistants are trained advocates at victim-services agencies across Colorado. Find one near you ↗ · servicios en español ↗ — or call the ACP at 303-866-2208 and they'll point you to one. Your local DA victim advocate can help too. Protected healthcare worker? Email acp@state.co.us directly — the ACP staff will walk you through options.
• 5 · Apply, together. You and the Assistant confirm the fit, complete the application, and every adult co-applicant signs (children enroll with a guardian's permission). The Assistant submits it. If you haven't heard back in two weeks, call the ACP. Bring our free prep worksheet to the meeting to save time.
• 6 · Receive your substitute address. Your household gets a Welcome Folder with your legal substitute address and authorization card. Your first-class mail — including certified mail and service of process — routes through the program to your real address, free. Enrollment lasts 4 years, and the ACP contacts you about renewal before it expires.
• 7 · Use it everywhere it counts. Every Colorado state and local agency must accept it: driver's license & state ID, confidential voter registration, your kids' school enrollment, county benefits, and court filings. Private companies (banks, landlords, utilities) are encouraged but not required — ask; most will. One hard limit: it cannot go on recorded real-estate documents like a deed. Program rules & statutes ↗
• 8 · Pair it with legal protection. The ACP hides where you are; a civil protection order restrains what they can do — and in a divorce or custody case, we can ask the court to seal or restrict your address in the file itself. That's where we come in.

Honest limitations

• The substitute address cannot be used on real-property documents recorded with a county Clerk and Recorder (e.g., a home deed).
• Private companies are not required to accept it.
• It does not forward junk mail or magazines.
• It protects your new address going forward — it can't erase an address that is already public. It is one part of a safety plan, not a substitute for a protection order.