Boulder Continues Evictions in Pandemic, Ignoring Colorado’s Governor and Public Health Experts

Last evening, Boulder City Council continued their active opposition to addressing Boulder’s discriminatory occupancy laws. The majority of Council members voted against temporarily suspending occupancy enforcement, a proposal aimed to help Boulder community members stay housed in a pandemic. The City Council majority clearly had no interest in engaging in the discussion — Mayor Sam Weaver said he did not even want to watch the staff presentation.

For the past twenty weeks, over fifty speakers from Bedrooms Are For People have advocated for reforming occupancy limits and adopting fair housing laws. “Please take action now to restore voters’ faith in our government and show your compassion for your neighbors to help keep Boulder whole,” said campaign volunteer Nick Grossman when giving public comment at last night’s meeting.

In June, Governor Polis issued Executive Order D 2020 099 encouraging all municipalities “that place limits on the number of unrelated persons who can live in a single household… suspend or eliminate those restrictions to enable homeowners to rent or give a room or rooms to those in need of housing.” Governor Polis reiterated his request to Boulder City Council yesterday saying, “making sure that Coloradans have access to safe housing during the COVID crisis is one of our top priorities statewide.”

After multiple requests over months by Council Member Rachel Friend to consider and implement the order, consistent calls from the community for action, and an email from the governor the same day, Council dismissed the idea in fifteen minutes with fewer than half of them speaking on the issue at all.

The COVID-19 pandemic and economic fallout are acute challenges that require quick action. Council has shown no empathy or interest in protecting marginalized people in our community.

Council has scheduled a study session to further discuss occupancy limits on October 13th. The city has held multiple previous working groups stretching back to at least 1999, all recommending increases to housing occupancy limits.

We continue to see actions in bad faith from Boulder City Council. The council has refused to protect people during the pandemic, taken anti-democratic actions to keep the Bedrooms Are For People measure off the 2020 ballot, as well as Bob Yates’ inappropriate emails to threaten non-profits who endorsed our ballot measure.

The Bedrooms Are For People team will continue to hold our elected officials accountable by working to put our measure on the 2021 ballot.

MEDIA CONTACTS

- Eric Budd | Campaign Co-Chair, Bedrooms Are For People | 720-295-1122 | ericbudd@gmail.com

- Chelsea Castellano | Campaign Co-Chair, Bedrooms Are For People | 732-977-7746 | chelseacastellano@gmail.com