The Unrepentant Tenant
The downward mobility of owning a mobile home
A couple of weeks ago, a ground-breaking Colorado bill, HB 1287, passed out of committee, bringing forward an extension of badly needed protections for Colorado...
The fantasy of inflation increasing rents
It seems that locally and nationally, housing prices may have peaked, in that there are fewer bidding wars over units for sale, and houses/condos...
Who knew? Rental deposits are strongly protected
Overall, Colorado doesn’t have a lot of tenant protections — it regularly ranks near the bottom when it comes to evictions, right to repairs...
A bright spot for Boulder renters on repairs
In my last column (Unrepentant Tenant, “Do tenants have a right to a habitable home?”, Sept. 8, 2022), I wrote about the history of...
The bigger picture of rent control
A recent letter to the editor about my column (see The unrepentant tenant, “Rent control: Why or why not?” March 24, 2022) raised some points...
What rent control could have looked like in Boulder
Since the beginning of this column in March, I’ve focused on rent control—then I pivoted, uncovering the broader history of tenant activism in Boulder....
Do tenants have a right to a habitable home? Yes, but…
The most common problem for tenants by far is not getting their deposit back—but that subject will have to wait for another column.
Probably the...
Unrepentant Tenant
The Unrepentant Tenant last outlined tenant activism in Boulder through the 1970s, with the Boulder County Tenant’s Organization (BCTO) based on the CU campus...
Interest on deposits and repairs for tenants
Returning to the evolving tenant’s movement in Boulder, my last column promised to delve further into the battle to obtain interest on deposits, and...
The hidden history of tenant activism in Boulder, part 1
I'm now going to switch focus from rent control to the broader issue of tenant issues. Tenant protection receives relatively little media coverage, even...
Help for tenants facing eviction
A quick clarification of something I wrote in my Sept. 8, 2022 column about the warranty of habitability for renters: While CU students can...
Rent control rallies and 1980s tenant battles
The summer heat is not only breaking records (thank you, climate crisis) but also manifesting itself in the world of rent control and activism.
Two...
