I moved to Boulder in August 2014 and since then managed to live in several different types of housing currently embattled in the the co-op ordinance debate — your garden variety low-density, yet over-occupied housing (not a co-op); an illegal high-density rental co-op; a legal, low-occupancy equity co-op; and a legal Boulder Housing Coalition co-op. I’m 29 years old. I’m queer. I have never baked a pie in my life. I’m passionate about my work; it’s what keeps me living in Boulder. I’m a person who benefits from high-density cooperative housing in this city. I think the practices, processes, norms, and culture that make densely occupied co-ops good places for me also mean benefits for neighbors.
I benefit from the structure of cooperatives when co-opers have the efficacy to build and rework systems to suit their needs and the needs of the group. I like knowing what I am expected to contribute to my community, and that other people living in that community are expected to make similar contributions. The cooperatives I’ve lived in typically expect, through systems built and maintained by the people living in the house, six to seven hours of labor per week. In a house of 15 people, like the one I live in now, this is roughly 100 person-hours to contribute to maintenance and improvement of the house and grounds, development of house systems, and community building. Pooling of labor allows people time to make contributions to the outside community. Contrary to public comment around this issue, denizens of rental co-ops are as responsible, trustworthy, and community-minded as people with enough financial privilege to own property.
In co-ops, explicit expectations extend to agreements about how we treat each other. For example, quiet hours are agreed upon and upheld in each of the three co-ops I’ve occupied, but in no other living arrangements I’ve held. In my experience, too much noise and complaints from neighbors happen when there are no explicit agreements around noise amongst the people living in the house.
The emotional and social support I’ve found living with 12-15 people meets my needs in a way that living with two or three other people does not. I have a difficult time relaxing and separating from work, and it is a tremendous benefit for me to come home to my live-in friends laughing, cooking, eating, or engaging in conversation. This is not to say that living in co-ops is not hard work. Living in co-ops has challenged me, forced me to engage in conflict, encouraged me to be a better communicator, and presented me with opportunities to live with people who are different than me. And whether or not we realize it, it is always in our best interest to live with people who are different from us.
I’ve benefited from pooling financial resources in high density co-ops. For me, and for many people in Boulder, living in a house of 12-15 people means that I can pay rent and other necessary expenses while living with three to five other people means that I can’t. This is true for many people living in Boulder. Some conclude if we can’t afford to live in Boulder according to occupancy limits, we should go somewhere more affordable.
It is my experience that, as a group, we will not leave, and increased enforcement won’t make us more inclined to leave. The increased enforcement, according to the 2017 budget, means one additional enforcement officer for all housing-related complaints in the city of Boulder. This does not a door-to-door zoning police force make.
Boulder needs a co-op housing ordinance that co-opers can actually use, because the lack of a usable ordinance will not stop high-density co-ops, it will stop safe and habitable co-ops. Unaffordable housing crises force people to live in dangerous housing situations. For example, the legal 15-person co-op I currently live in has a fire suppression system spanning the entire house. The illegal 12-person co-op I previously lived in was, for some weeks, without a fire extinguisher when the fire extinguisher’s original owner moved. Oakland’s Ghost Ship fire and subsequent closure of DIY spaces is certainly regrettable, and it is certainly in Boulder’s best interest to prevent tragedy and a subsequent reactive, authoritarian crackdown by proactively allowing affordable, habitable, and legal housing.
Lindsey Loberg lives in Boulder.
