Bedrooms: Yes on 300 for positive change

By Chelsea Castellano, Bedrooms Are For People campaign co-lead. Also published as a letter to the editor in the Daily Camera on October 27, 2021.

"Since before 1970, it has been illegal in most of Boulder for more than three unrelated people to live together. It doesn’t matter how big the house is, how old the residents are, or if the owner lives in the home. To illustrate, in most of Boulder it is illegal for four people to share a four-bedroom house if they aren’t related. Every year thousands of “over-occupied” residents live in fear of eviction for the simple act of sharing housing. Measure 300 would expand access to housing by making it legal for unrelated people to live together based on the number of bedrooms in a home. This is not radical. This is a rational way to set limits for people to share housing.

We all have a lot to gain from 300 passing, because when we create fair and just laws that reflect our social, economic, and environmental values then we get one step closer toward living in the community that we dream of. The community where people are not marginalized or discriminated against, and where liberty and justice for all is not just a motto but a materialized ethos that permeates through the fabric of our laws and the way we treat each other. We have the choice to make that vision a reality, so let’s choose it. Let’s choose to embrace a modest change that will have a meaningful impact. Let’s choose to open ourselves up to the possibility that the way things have always been done is no longer working. Whether it’s climate change or housing justice, we need to take steps toward a brighter future for ourselves and for the people that come after us. Let’s vote YES on measure 300 and take this important step together."