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After a substantial number of Boulder County residents spoke out against a proposed ordinance meant to stop people from living on county-owned land, the Boulder County Commissioners rejected the ordinance.
Commissioners Matt Jones and Marta Loachamin did not move forward with the ordinance titled “Limitations on residing on Boulder County-owned land.” Commissioner Claire Levy was not present for the meeting.
Sheriff Joe Pelle explained to commissioners that the regulation came up after people living in residential neighborhoods started to complain about people living in RVs, motorhomes and camper trailers on county right-of-ways, like streets. The county currently has no specific ordinance prohibiting living in a vehicle on county property, and residents had worries about the vehicles being in their roadways long term and the health concerns with sewage.
“It is essentially the equivalent of a parking ticket, but it would give our deputies a tool to educate people that they can’t live there on that street and to hopefully help them move on,” Pelle said. “I’m not sure that we would actually write any of these, if at all. The fact is that it doesn’t exist now and so we can’t enforce it. It’s a real problem with a lot of our community members.”
The areas most affected by people using county land for living are just outside Longmont and Boulder, according to Conrad Lattes, open space county attorney. He said the regulation was drafted to be consistent with Boulder’s regulations, though it would be less restrictive than Longmont as people would still be allowed to sleep in their car one night out of seven on the sides of county roads.
Lattes said the ordinance as proposed makes residing on Boulder County-owned property a civil infraction, not criminal. As drafted, a violation would lead to a fine of no more than $300.
“The goal is not to punish but to protect county land and prevent the adverse conditions to the county and its neighbors,” Lattes said.
Every public speaker during the hearing was against this regulation, except for Longmont Mayor Joan Peck. Peck did not speak in favor or against the regulation, but called for more collaboration regionally to approach the systemic roots of homelessness in Boulder County.
Two speakers identified themselves as currently unhoused, while others spoke about their previous experiences with homelessness.
“For a law to be created that further criminalizes us after we are criminalized at every turn, there is nowhere to go,” said Jennifer Shurley, who described herself as an unhoused Boulder County resident. “We can’t go into Boulder city, we can’t go to Longmont, we can’t go to Denver. Where are we supposed to go if you do not propose alternatives and safe places where we can legally live in poverty?”
Multiple members of the Boulder County branch of the NAACP spoke on the effect this ordinance would have on people of color in the county, who disproportionately experience homelessness.
One of the biggest concerns was around a part of the regulation that stated that people using a tent or other means of shelter on county-owned property “should have no expectation of privacy and may be required to open the shelter by Boulder County law enforcement or security officers.”
Annie Kurtz, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, said this regulation goes against a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that found that a person living in a tent does have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Lattes acknowledged that Kurtz was correct later in the hearing and recommended that that language be struck if the ordinance were to move forward.
Other concerns were raised about the language of “residing,” which the drafted ordinance described as using shelter of any cover from the elements other than clothing, including tents, vehicles and sleeping bags.
Almost all speakers asked that the county look to address the root causes of homelessness rather than passing this ordinance, which they considered to be further criminalizing the issue.
While both commissioners rejected the ordinance as presented, Jones was open to staff bringing back a new proposal to address the issue. Loachamin said she would not be interested in staff putting any more work into regulating living on county property.
