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Writer's pictureBedrooms Are For People

Boulder and Denver voters asked to contemplate group living situations on November ballot

By Meghan Lopez. Originally published and broadcast on The Denver Channel 7 on October 20, 2021.


"Boulder and Denver voters will consider two contrasting ballot questions in November that deal with group living situations.


One aims to expand the number of unrelated people allowed to live in a home. The other intends on limiting group living situations by reversing a prior city council decision.


Boulder Ballot Question 300


In Boulder, voters are being asked whether more people should be allowed to live in the same home to help with the issue of affordability.


Ballot Question 300 asks voters whether the city should allow housing units to be occupied by one person per legal bedroom plus one.


That means in a three-bedroom house, four unrelated adults would be able to live together. For a four-bedroom house, five unrelated adults could live together and so on.

Currently Boulder’s city ordinance allows three to four unrelated adults to live in the same unit at maximum.


'So many people in Boulder are living illegally right now technically because they’re not related, and so they’re not on the lease, they don’t =have the legal rights of a tenant and so it’s to help them legalize their living situation,' said Hannah George, a volunteer with the Bedrooms are for People campaign.


George lives in a co-op with seven other people and says, even with her job, she would not be able to afford to live in Boulder without roommates. The co-op had to go through a lengthy application process and pay $600 in order to be able to exist.


She believes this ballot measure will help better accommodate different living arrangements and add more flexibility for renters.


'It’s also so people don’t have to marry or become domestic partners with our housemates to enjoy living together. I know someone who has had to do that,' George said.


She points out that nuclear families are allowed to have higher occupancy numbers, and she says this ballot question is a reasonable compromise. The group has the support of the Emergency Family Assistance Association."


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