BCTO concentrated more on counseling services at first, and in fact disavowed their predecessors' tactics. Our tactics are not rent strikes, but dialogue between landlords and tenants, action on legal information and trying to bring about legislation. While the new group primarily focused on counseling, it also successfully pushed for passage of a rental licensing program and a stronger housing code. Although BCTO started off with a far smaller membership and financial base than BTU, it had an important ally - progressive city councilman Tim Fuller. The council ignored the findings and proposals.
Landlords charge what they can get away with.
As they started organizing tenants and pushing for better local tenant protection, the renters project merged with BCTO, and the Boulder Tenants Union was reborn. BTU also continued doing tenant and landlord counseling. As a whole, the city council consistently resisted calls by BTU to pass better tenant laws. But only showing up en masse to council meetings, along with petition drives, got their attention. Throughout the early to mid '80s, BTU successfully pressured the city council to pass ordinances that ended discrimination against tenants with children, required a written lease and a copy for the tenant and amended the housing code to include weatherization.