Boulder residents, lawmakers weigh in on bill
Last summer, community members reacted with a mix of joy and outrage after the Boulder City Council voted to increase the number of unrelated people who can legally live together from three to five.
Now, a bill is making its way through the state legislature that could block cities from creating or enforcing residential occupancy limits based on family relationships. The bill would still permit health and safety-related occupancy limits, such as those required under fire and building codes.
Rep. Manny Rutinel, D-commerce City, one of the prime sponsors, told the Daily Camera the bill is mainly intended to help address Colorado’s lack of housing affordability by increasing the supply of available rooms for people to live in. However, he also has a few other goals in mind.
“It has an effect on greater inclusivity for various family and household structures, like immigrant families that have multigenerational members in their home, or members of the LGBTQ family that live with folks that may not share their same last name but are still loved ones,” he said.
Rutinel added that he believes the bill will lead to environmental benefits by reducing urban sprawl and allowing more residents to share resources like electricity. Additionally, he hopes letting more people live together will help combat the “loneliness epidemic” by promoting stronger social connections.
If the bill passes, it will directly impact cities like Boulder, which has restricted occupancy based on family relationships for decades. The City Council’s vote in August was groundbreaking in part because city code had only allowed up to three unrelated people to live together since the 1960s.
The push in the community to allow more people to share a living space has intensified as the city’s housing shortage worsens and cost of living continues to spike. In 2021, the Bedrooms Are For People ballot initiative, which would have increased the allowable occupancy to one person per bedroom plus one additional person per home, narrowly failed on a 48% to 52% vote.
Eric Budd, a co-lead of the Bedrooms initiative, has previously said the goal of Bedrooms was to end occupancy laws in Boulder that are based on the relationships of people who want to live together. Budd told the Daily