$8,074 raised by 48 donors
100% complete
$7,000 Goal
The Boulder Housing Coalition creates permanently affordable cooperative housing in Boulder, Colorado. Your donation helps to provide inclusive, socially-aware, environmentally sustainable, resident-controlled homes for low-income individuals and families who may not otherwise be able to afford housing in Boulder.
Our mission is to create permanently affordable, community enhancing, cooperative housing for the people of Boulder County
For more than 20 years The Boulder Housing Coalition has been the preeminent cooperative organization in Boulder, expansing to include four houses serving over sixty low-income families and individuals. These individuals range from newborns to senior citizens. Some of our residents are single moms, doctorate students at CU, transitioning out of homelessness, artists, activists, and change-makers, that make contributions to Boulder that they might not be able to make without the possibility created by our affordable housing.
The Boulder Housing Coalition is more than just "affordable housing"
We are committed to keeping our housing permanently affordable for Boulder residents - with average rents currently hundreds of dollars below market rates. Our residents pool their money to buy food in bulk, enabling us to afford mostly organic whole foods and take part in Community Supported Agriculture in the warmer months! And yet, we're much more than just affordable housing. Residents split house chores amongst themselves, cook for each other, manage their own maintenance funds, participate in restorative conflict mediation, and practice consensus decision-making at weekly house meetings. We partner with local organizations to provide our residents, and the local community, annual trainings in social justice and other essential cooperative skills. The skills our residents' practice in their co-ops make them into compassionate leaders, expert communicators, and well-rounded individuals ready to contribute to their community.
The Boulder Housing Coalition is committed to social justice and works to make our co-ops anti-oppressive, anti-racist, all-inclusive, and fantastically diverse.
The Boulder Housing Coalition is committed to environmental sustainability, with three out of four houses largely powered by solar and all of our houses boasting productive and beautiful gardens!
Read more about our mission, vision, and values here.
The Boulder Housing Coalition (BHC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to creating permanently affordable, sustainable, community enhancing, cooperative housing for the people of Boulder county.
In 1995, Will Toor, the director of CU Boulder's Environmental Center, foresaw housing prices soaring out of reach for Boulder's low-income residents. Will and Lincoln Miller, who would become our executive director, knew that housing cooperatives were a radical solution to Boulder's increasing housing prices and decreasing equity, inclusivity, and sustainability; a collective living situation that would decrease rent and increase residents' decision-making power. In 1996, they formed the Boulder Housing Coalition (BHC), a nonprofit with the goal of creating affordable housing co-ops in Boulder. The BHC spent its first few years raising money and support to create student co-ops at CU Boulder, but these efforts were ultimately blocked by the university.
After that, focus turned to bringing this affordable and community-based housing model to the greater Boulder community. The BHC bought its first house, Masala, in 2002; and added its second house, Chrysalis, in 2004. Due to Boulder's occupancy limit laws, it took another decade to add our third house, Ostara. The BHC then worked with community partners and city officials to make cooperatives legal by passing Boulder's 2017 Cooperative Housing Ordinance, after which we were able to acquire our fourth house, Mango Manor. As Boulder has continued to grow more unaffordable, homogenous, and lonely, the BHC's work has only grown more important, and we look to the future with a goal of further expanding to provide as many low-income individuals and families as we can with housing that is affordable, equitable, sustainable, and enriching for individuals and the community.
Organization name
Boulder Housing Coalition
other names
BHC
1996
Tax id (EIN)
84-1455089
Category
Housing & Shelter, Civil Rights, Social Action & Advocacy, Community Improvement & Capacity Building, Human Services, Social Science
Organization Size
Medium Organization
Address
2711 Mapleton Ave Apt 22Boulder County, CO, US