📧 Email Boulder County Commissioners:

TO:

commissioners@bouldercounty.org

SUBJECT: (or write your own!)

Vote NO on Ordinance 2022-1

BODY:

Dear Commissioner Jones, Levy, and Loachamin,

My name is [FULL NAME] and I am from [YOUR ZIP].

Just months after the Marshall Fire destroyed 1,084 homes, Boulder Sheriff Pelle is proposing an ordinance to penalize people for sheltering in their vehicles in Boulder County. According to Sheriff Pelle, the intent of this ordinance is to move people experiencing homelessness out of sight of housed people as homelessness rises in the county, and the country. 

Boulder County was already in a housing crisis prior to the Marshall Fire, with little actually affordable housing for the county’s working class residents. But the tragic loss of those 1,084 homes has resulted in even sharper rent increases. People seeking shelter in their vehicles are very often our delivery drivers, sales associates, cooks, and other service-industry workers, just trying to stay afloat in an economy that isn’t working for them. 

Every respected homelessness organization in the country opposes criminalizing states of homelessness, as punitive responses to homelessness simply further the cycle of poverty. A $300 ticket for someone who can’t afford an apartment pushes that individual closer to losing their vehicle and into a tent. 

I urge you to do the right thing for Boulder’s working class and vote NO on Ordinance 2022-1; Limitation on residing on Boulder County owned land.

Thank you,