AURORA | The Aurora Day Resource Center is continuing as the city’s overnight shelter as the Regional Aurora Navigation Campus will not be ready to open until the end of the year, city officials said.
“This agenda item is to provide some additional funding to Advance for operating the Aurora Day Resource Center in the interim, until we open the Navigation Campus,” said Emma Knight, manager of Homelessness Behavioral Health, Housing and Community Services.
Aurora is allocating $130,000 in unspent public safety funds to Advance, the city’s contractor, for continued operation of an emergency overnight shelter for single adults at the Aurora Day Resource Center on the Fitzsimons campus. This funding will help sustain shelter services until the opening of the city’s new Navigation Campus, which is expected in the fourth quarter of this year.
That campus is a remodeled hotel and convention center complex purchased by the city to create a unified center for overnight and long-term housing and a variety of services for homeless people.
Advance started operating overnight shelter services at the Day Resource Center in October 2024, even though it fell outside of the original agreement with the city for day services and future operations at the upcoming Navigation Campus, according to supporting documents.
The funds were made available after the city’s 2024 Homeless Services Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) process left $130,000 in Public Safety funds unallocated. These dollars are now being redirected to bridge the gap in emergency shelter until the Navigation Campus becomes operational.
“Some additional Public Safety dollars that were not allocated during our NOFO process and fit quite well into what we would normally use them for,” Knight said.
Under the agreement, services will be funded through December 31 unless terminated earlier due to the opening of the Navigation Campus.