Thread by @shayshinecastle

Mayor Brockett is taking over leading the meeting. We've got a full open comment... 20 ppl. Yikes.

Sounds like a lot of Bedrooms folks.

And it is. Jacob Payne is asking for council to temporarily stop evictions due to over-occupancy for 6 months, while they work to change the rules.

Ambika Kamath echoes that.

Do these Bedrooms ppl ever take a day off? It was literally just the election.

Kamath: "I worry it's going to be hard for council to collect data" on occupancy laws. People who are living over-occupied might be afraid to "come forward and freely share their stories ... and best ideas" if they know they can be evicted.

Hadn't thought of that, but I did interview several ppl living over-occupied who all requested anonymity and all said they try to stay under the radar, politically and otherwise.

Neesa Schnepf is the third to call for a 6-month timeout on evicting over-occupied ppl.

"No one should be afraid of repercussions by" helping to craft policy, Schnepf says.

Eric Budd, a co-organizer, asks more explicitly for a Nod of 5 tonight from council to add this to the agenda. A Nod of 5 is an informal vote to add something to council's workplan, or to direct staff to work on something.

Budd: When we worked on co-op rules years ago, the city did something similar. They suspended enforcement against illegal co-ops while the rules were being worked on for 2 years.

That was *just* before my time, so I don't remember that. Source, anyone?

Margaret LeCompte is speaking to the CU South referendum, a petition that seeks to undo the council vote on that annexation.

"This fight is not over," LeCompte says.

Hey, I've got a source for Budd's claim. I love my Twitter followers :)

dailycamera.com/2015/11/18/bou…

Patrick Murphy with issues on the Xcel-city energy partnership; Laura Tyler thanking council members for supporting the CU South annexation.

SarahDawn Haynes: "We lost the Radish co-op this year. What if they didn't have to fundraise" for city fees and fines? Would they have survived.

Also asking for a suspension of occupancy limit enforcement.

Rob Smoke: "The death of an infant and her mother ... that has to be the thing that substitutes in this case for" another look at the tent ban. "Someone in a $100 tent has a much better chance of surviving."

"Cracking down on somebody with a tent is just wrong," Smoke says.

I think the only last name cooler than Castle is Smoke. Shay Smoke, PI. I like it.

Kevin McWilliams: "I have lived nearly my entire time in Boulder over-occupied." Has been evicted — or had roommates evicted — twice, without warning. "The first sign we had of it was a yellow code enforcement ticket on our door, and police coming through our house...

... looking at number of toothbrushes and so on. It's really trying to live in fear of your own city, because you're living with people you're choosing to live with and trying to make your situation affordable."

Blake Stone tells a similar story (2 occupancy violations) when living with 3 other working professionals.

"Look, Boulder, I love taking care of your elderly folks and volunteering in the shelter. But can you please legalize my housing?"

Currently lives alone, so Stone feels OK speaking out. Others still don't, Stone says.

Harlin Savage, another anti-annexation of CU South folk. "This fight is far from over."

Asks that council put that referendum vote on the 2022 ballot. They can do that or call a special election for it (the city would have to pay $$ for that, tho).

Max Hollingsworth, another Bedrooms volunteer and grad student, asking for a timeout on occupancy evictions.

I can't count the number of grad students I know who have to live over-occupied just to afford housing here.

"This is exactly the diverse population you should try to keep here in Boulder," Hollingsworth says, "not just pass through."

Carol Dreselly also speaking on occupancy. She and her husband retired and in their 70s(!) proving this is not just an issue for the young. Renting extra bedrooms/an ADU allowed them to afford their house, Dreselly says.

"It doesn't seem to be a problem to the city that we can have up to 25 vehicles parked" on the street for the homes being scraped and replaced for multi-million dollar mansions, Dreselly says. But for our guests/boarders, it apparently was.

Another Bedrooms speaker, Alex Weinheimer (who I think is/was on TAB?): "Over time, our policies have made Boulder a less livable place." Give ppl more choice, Weinheimer says.

Aidan Cook, also of Bedrooms: "Bc of climate change, I've chosen not to have kids. But I do want to have a family." I have a chosen one: My partner and friends.

Legally adopted 3 of their housemates!!! So they didn't get evicted.

It's absurd, Cook says, and not practical for everyone.

This is wild. I heard about this for months, but never met the person(s) in question.

Aidan, please DM or email me!

Ryan Schuchard, also of TAB, also speaking on Bedrooms. "There's so much need and interest in this." We're in a COVID crisis and climate crisis; we should not be evicting people.

Kristen Hess, another Bedrooms folk and grad student. They are out in force tonight. "I struggle to find a 3-bedroom" in Boulder that is "affordable and comfortable." So I look for more bedrooms and more affordability, Hess says.

Dan Williams, a recent candidate for city council and past lawyer for Bedrooms as they fought to get on the ballot, also asks for a nod of five tonight.

"On the campaign trail, one of the loudest arguments I heard against Bedrooms" was that investors would redevelop homes.

An eviction moratorium won't have that outcome, Williams says, bc they won't know what the eventual occupancy rules will be. "It's the best of both worlds."

Heather Bowler, another Bedrooms volunteer: "It's been wonderful to meet the folks who are actually living over-occupied," many who didn't realize they were. "With COVID still raging, we want people in stable housing."

When someone enters a monetary crisis, they first seek out housing with their friends and neighbors to share, Bowler says.

That's the end of this Bedrooms-heavy open comment. Been awhile since we've had one of those.

Joseph: I thought an occupancy violation went to the landlord, not the tenant?

Jacob Lindsey, head of Planning: We receive a complaint, investigate, then ticket the landlord. We don't evict tenants, but the process may result in a reduction of occupants — without a formal eviction.

So basically, people still lose their housing, but they don't have a formal eviction on their records. That's important, bc it makes it harder to find subsequent housing.

But still, a loss of housing is not nothing, whether "formal" or not. You ever try to find housing in this town??? Especially on short notice?

Friend asks to schedule a Nod of Five on Nov. 30, since council doesn't like to schedule stuff night-of.

Yates: "I think that is the right process. ... There are prob other ppl in the community, and we should give them an opportunity" to be heard.

But it should be scheduled "as quickly as possible," Yates says.

Wallach to Lindsey: Obviously to get a landlord in compliance with occupancy, some tenants will have to leave. How many ppl are we talking here?

It's ~25 *homes* over the past 3 years or so, but the number of displaced tenants is unknown, as Lindsey says.

Bc the city counts violations, which is per house.

Speer follows up on that: Do we have any demographic information on those displaced tenants? "I understand (violations) are on landlords, but the end result is the same."

Lindsey: The city does not conduct those evictions. Those are conducted by the county sheriff's office, and they have to be brought by the landlord. So they might have records; we don't.

I highly doubt there is demographic info on evictions. The county/city doesn't even really track evictions all that closely, as we saw with the eviction representation petition. The best data came from volunteers who monitored proceedings for ~1 year.

Winer: Bedrooms did not pass, so how does that play into our discussion of occupancy? Or does it matter?

NRV: I'm not sure there's a correlation. Clearly there's an interest, but that's up to council.

OK, moving on. Expect a Nod of Five on this Nov. 30. Should not have a public hearing with it (they usually don't), but it's possible.

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