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By Anna Rhea Vernier. Also published as a letter to the editor in the Daily Camera on September 7, 2021.
I work at a Montessori school in South Boulder. Living in physical proximity to my job has always been very important to me, both to help reduce my carbon footprint, and to feel immersed in the community where I spend so much of my time.
Every year, it becomes more challenging for me to afford to live in Boulder on the income of an Early Childhood teacher, and more and more of the friends I grew up with move away because they cannot find places they can afford to live in this town anymore.
One of my co-teachers was also born in Boulder and her mother is on disability. Even with subsidiary funds from the government, living in “affordable housing, “my co-teacher’s mother is still paying $800 a month in rent for a one-bedroom trailer. It is extremely sad for myself and people like her to be priced out of our own home town.
This is why I support — and volunteer for — the Bedrooms Are For People ballot measure. BAFP was recently endorsed by the Emergency Family Assistance Association specifically because it would ameliorate the difficulties of families experiencing housing insecurity in Boulder.
Of course our measure won’t eradicate homelessness in this community, nor will it single-handedly solve the affordable housing crisis. But I believe strongly that it will help myself, the friends I grew up with, and the families in my preschool who struggle financially to be included in Boulder’s community.