Homelessness in Boulder: My Approach
My Core Perspective
As a Political Economist, I understand that homelessness is not a personal failing, but is a symptom of deeper breakdowns in our political, social, and economic systems. As a community, there is a large demand for “quick-fix” solutions to homelessness, but quick-fix approaches are costly, often fail, and can worsen trauma in our community. I believe our response to homelessness must be humane, prevention-focused, and grounded in long-term solutions that make the best use of our limited resources.
1. Prevention First
Address the housing gap by increasing truly affordable, attainable housing for all, including disabled residents, seniors, and low and middle-income families. I support rezoning for more low- and middle-income multi-family housing and creative solutions such as cooperatives, ADUs, and tiny homes. I believe that requires that new developments labeled “affordable” are actually affordable for low- and middle-income residents. I believe we should first prioritize “re-development” as a strategy to make better use of and support what we already have before we allocate funding and space for newer developments, which tend to be more expensive and less accessible for residents.
Research shows childhood homelessness is the strongest predictor of adult homelessness. According to BVSD, over 1,000 students experienced homelessness in 2023–24, triple the number from three years earlier. We need to revive Boulder’s youth shelter and expand programs for housing at-risk and unhoused children.
We need to support local organizations and programs that are addressing other major self-reported reasons for homelessness in Boulder, such as domestic violence, mental health, loss of employment, and other underlying issues. On City Council, I will work to cultivate resources and partnerships that can help us address these issues despite a lessened city budget.
Fix barriers that leave “affordable” units empty. I’ve seen this firsthand— the lowest rent I was offered through Boulder Housing Partners was $1,600/month with a voucher, plus proof of double that income to qualify. Unfortunately, that’s still not accessible to many residents, including myself. I would like to reallocate resources to improve the utilization of current housing before building more “affordable” units that don’t meet real affordability needs.
We need better protections for renters. Renters make up more than half of Boulder’s residents but have little representation on City Council. As a renter, on council I would oppose rollbacks to renter protections, explore ordinances for longer notice periods for rent hikes and evictions, advocate for the development of a Rental Registry so the city can track rent increases, work with the city to provide a “fair renting guideline” based on local economic data with a program to incentivize “fair rent” pledges from landlords with benefits like tax credits, grants, and permit streamlining, and work on statewide initiatives such as a winter eviction moratorium for non-emergency, no-fault cases.
2. Humane Responses
Let’s start by addressing the ways we discuss unhoused residents. I believe that our city leaders need to shift the language addressing homelessness to avoid dehumanizing terms and approaches. (Example: I have never “swept” a human being, only dirt and trash on floors)
Designate spaces that allow for safer, more efficient resource delivery and clear public safety guidelines. Right now, even though there is no 24-hour shelter space (and I believe there should be a 24-hour shelter) with the capacity to address the number of unhoused individuals, there is no designated space where unhoused residents can exist without the risk of further displacement. When we can accept that this systemic issue will not quickly disappear, we can begin to make grounded decision-making that allows us to have better regulation in the long run for the safety of both the unhoused and housed residents alike.
We need to prioritize services to local chronically homeless residents and families. I believe that the Clutch report accomplishes both compassion and pragmatism. I especially appreciate the suggestion that we centralize our resources to improve service delivery and that we are focused on local chronically unhoused residents, while offering short-term aid to transients. I think this is an excellent method of ensuring that we are giving out aid in an equitable way that fits our long-term SER goals as a city.
We need enforcement that works with other services in the community and only penalizes people who are not following the appropriate guidelines, when those guidelines are humane and services are available. Our current system provides what I call a “no way out” scenario for so many individuals in our community, where they are always told to move while not having a place to go. This is only making problems worse as people are further distressed, and keeps our enforcement budgets in endless and expensive bandaid approaches instead of being able to contribute to a services-first holistic approach to manage public safety challenges arising from unhoused community members living and existing outdoors.
3. Plan for Emergencies & Disasters
All currently housed individuals risk losing their homes in the case of disasters and emergencies.
I propose that our city needs a formal emergency housing system plan (e.g., designated shelters, mass temporary housing plans) available, which does not currently exist. We could enact designated evacuation shelters for events such as wildfires and floods (schools, rec centers, etc), pre-arranged lodging partnerships with hotels/complexes for bulk relocation, rapid-response rental assistance activated upon evacuation orders with priority assistance given to those who are lower-income, and these housing funds being available through wildfire bonds and/or climate taxes.