Bedrooms Are For People: Vote Yes for Housing

By Elisabeth Patterson. Also published as a letter to the editor in the Daily Camera on October 19, 2021.

"Better Boulder stands with 90% of respondents in a recent poll by Bob Drake of Drake Research that building affordable and middle-income housing was 'important, very important or extremely important.' We also agree with the 75% of voters who responded to the poll supporting what is now ballot measure 300 for increased occupancy, Bedrooms Are For People. Sierra Club, The Daily Camera, the Boulder Chamber, the Boulder Weekly, BizWest and others have now endorsed the measure.

Dating back to 1970, it has been illegal in most of Boulder for more than three unrelated people to live together, no matter how big the house is, how old the residents are, or even if the owner lives in the home. If passed, the Bedrooms Are For People ballot measure would update Boulder’s arbitrary, archaic, and exclusionary occupancy limits by setting limits for unrelated people based on the number of bedrooms in a home. Reforming restrictive housing laws is urgent now because housing insecurity — the number of people spending more than 30% of their income on housing — is at crisis proportions.

Boulder needs more housing. Colorado housing prices rose by 20% in the past year, and Boulder’s detached homes reached 'a median price of $1,557,500, up 55.74% from the same period a year ago.' Boulder’s restrictive housing policies have caused this escalation in prices.- Fair housing laws are not the source of investment in housing, and we can’t discriminate our way to inclusion.

Boulder is lagging behind its peers in reversing the damage caused by exclusionary policies. Please vote Yes on 300 to increase our community’s affordability, diversity, and resilience."