“The circumstances have been difficult, but just short of impossible.”

Firstly, I have had several periods of houselessness dating back to 2008. This was after having the same rental apartment for 20 years. I owed money when I left it, but I did pay some of it and helped prepare the place for renovations, so I avoided being charged with an eviction. I would describe it as extremely difficult and painful. I thought initially I could get by with couch surfing and maybe finding a low rent option. When I had trouble finding a place to live, I did some camping in the mountains, which got challenging after September.

I endured some real difficulties, such as waking up panicked because my face was frozen and I was feeling hypothermic, and was probably not far off. Setting aside all the physical difficulties that I endured off and on, the difficult part of it all for me was the kind of cruel or simply belligerent behavior from people I would otherwise regard with genuine care and respect.

There would constantly be small instances of abuse by police or just residents of Boulder with a decided prejudice against homeless people, who would sometimes exhibit their prejudice in a very offhand manner. I certainly know that others with the same issues are treated worse at times and I met people who really endured difficult circumstances. By the way, I don’t drink or use drugs other than cannabis, and I am not a big consumer of that either.

Currently I am housed in a house where the landlords are also my housemates. After living here for a number of weeks, I got into a prolonged argument about certain aspects of the rental. To make a long story short, I felt (and still feel) that the room I was renting was the only other room in the house that was available for rent and I would be the only tenant besides the two homeowners. It turned out they added another person, and then another after that, and one of them was a smoker, and the smoke was around the property constantly. Although the person wasn’t smoking in the house, they smoked in the garage and outside my window.

I complained loudly, or plainly, and then got a notice that I would have to leave ASAP. I indicated I was still willing to pay rent, but the response was that I could pay for September and would get a rebate if I left early. I was also told by the owners that they would not be going to eviction court because I was a housemate and not a regular tenant (although I had a lease.)

This was all a little scary, particularly having to see the landlords every day and also observe their request that I steer clear of them and not use the basic facilities of the house.

Long story short, although I got a threatening letter from their attorney and also had a notice taped to the door of my bedroom, I somehow managed to persuade them to let me stay. This was mainly because of the pandemic related eviction moratorium and, more so, the postponement of juried trials.

I have been paying rent, although I am presently 300 dollars short of the $4720 total amount owed. In other words, I have, with difficulty, paid $4420 of the total. My relationship with the landlords and the other two tenants have improved somewhat, mainly because I have made what amounts to an all out effort.

Having access to the advice of the CEDP attorney (Burt) and another attorney, and also good information from the DA’s office, who were very good about contacting the landlord and informing them that they did not have the legal protection to remove me as a “self help” type of eviction.

The circumstances have been difficult, but just short of impossible. I’m in the process of looking for something different, but I am not in the same difficulty I was in a few months ago. I’m not sure what the future holds, but I don’t expect to be evicted in the short term.

One thing is for certain, nobody conducting an eviction has the least care about the future of the person being evicted. Unless government agencies support the basic value of having people housed versus the alternatives, the issues of houselessness are going to be with us, and also causing a cascade of problems that affect everyone’s health and safety.

This should be obvious to elected officials and for some reason it is simply not obvious at all that homeless people on the streets are a problem that needs to be addressed in a manner that police and courts and judges simply cannot, regardless of how much they are empowered to do so.

Police don’t end homelessness; withholding services is absolutely an awful concept, increasing people’s suffering and not really providing the intended incentive to “not be homeless.”

If you fall into the trap of imagining that police and courts can end homelessness, there should be no question that you live in a dream world.

There are programs around the country and around the world that would make evictions a rare occurrence if those programs were drawn up and implemented, and there should be no question about that if the available information and evidence is examined.

Evictions are violence; adding more to police budgets to somehow more effectively “chase” houseless people after they are evicted is a truly pathetic and useless solution to the current housing shortage putting Colorado communities at ever greater risk of fragmentation and decay.

What bothers me the most — I think — is that there’s so little opportunity for positive outcomes. If the landlord wins, you suffer the eviction and the consequences following. The decisions have zero relation to or consideration for the post-eviction circumstances of the tenant.

If the landlord loses, presumably regarding back rent, he still just has red on his ledger, it’s not like he has to struggle with the catastrophe of sudden housing loss.

If you’ve made it to the bottom of this story and want to help, click here to send a letter to your state representatives (it’ll only take a minute), asking them to pass eviction court reform so people like Rob are better protected: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/its-time-for-eviction-reform?source=direct_link.