Aurora selects Advance to operate homeless ‘navigation’ center in old hotel

AURORA | Aurora moved closer to opening a regional, centralized homeless shelter and services center built from a shuttered 255-room hotel this week when it appointed a non-profit group to operate the facility.

Aurora-based nonprofit-group Advance was chosen by the Aurora City Council Monday to operate the new facility. Advance will also take over operation of the Aurora Day Resource Center from Mile High Behavioral Healthcare on the Fitzsimons campus as part of a consolidation in city homeless services.

The group was chosen over metro-area veteran programs Salvation Army and Comitis Crisis Center despite being in operation for only two years. Advance officials said even though the agency is relatively new, Advance leaders and service providers have years of experience. 

“The $2 million operations agreement, funded by Aurora’s general fund and marijuana tax revenue, covers shelter and case management services, among other services for the unhoused in the region,” city officials said in a statement. “Advance will also be responsible for securing additional public and private funding to sustain campus services.”

Earlier this year, Aurora negotiated a purchase price cap of $26.5 million for the 13-acre property, which it closed on over the summer. According to previous Sentinel reporting, the rest of the approximately $40 million investment — including money controlled by the city, overlapping counties, and the state — will be used to renovate the hotel.  

“We are excited to partner with the city of Aurora to operate the navigation campus and to reach our goal of reducing homelessness in Aurora by 50%,” Jim Goebelbecker, Advance’s Executive Director, said in a statement. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the metro area has seen a growing homeless population. 

After trying a variety of approaches to address homeless in the city, like encampment sweeps and transitional pallet housing, Aurora will now leverage federal, state, and regional funding to create a large, all-encompassing Aurora Regional Navigation Campus.  

“One stop for those in great need,” Goebelbecker said.

The campus will sit on 13 acres surrounding the old Crowne Plaza Hotel, 15500 E 40th Ave., in the northeast corner of the city. It will utilize the hotel’s 255 rooms, as well as the commercial kitchen and laundry facilities. 

Although Advance is newer than the other two companies it competed with, its directors, employees and board members have decades of combined experience. 

“In addition to our senior leadership experience with homelessness and substance use disorder, our board also has decades of experience working with the unhoused,” Goebelbecker said. “We partnered early on with the (Colorado) Springs Rescue Mission to mirror their best practices.” 

The multimillion-dollar campus is based on a “work first” approach for housing, according to Goebelbecker. Participants must seek and gain employment before qualifying for transitional housing at the center.

Other services, such as medical and addiction care, congregate shelter, employment counseling, assistance obtaining lost identification, case management and transportation will be available without job requirements. 

The selection panel for the two-year contract included representatives from the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties, as well as city staff, according to a statement.

“Advance’s prior experience and holistic approach to helping individuals transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency will be an asset to the campus,” said Jessica Prosser, Aurora’s Director of Housing and Community Services, in the release.

Although the navigation center won’t open until late 2025, Advance will take over operation of the Aurora Resource Day Center from Mile High Behavioral Healthcare Oct. 1. Goebelbecker said Advance has no plans to make immediate changes. 

At the campus, sobriety and employment will be requirements to receive transitional housing through the program, Advance officials said, but those are only some of the steps of “recovery.”

“We use the recovery as a broad term,” Goebelbecker said, adding that recovery means helping people overcome whatever put someone in the situation to become homeless.

Goebelbecker plans for the final design of the campus to be a community endeavor.

“We can’t do this alone,” Goebelbecker said, referring to the community goal of reducing homelessness. “There are local nonprofits that provide quality service, and we want to partner with them.”