AURORA | Mile High Council/Comitis Crisis Center is set to receive up to $10,000 from the city to house more homeless people during the coldest nights of winter.
The Aurora City Council Public Safety Committee gave initial approval for the expenditure at a meeting Feb. 28, and council members are set to formally vote on the issue at their next council meeting March 4.
Comitis asked the city for $10,000 to add two part-time employees to house more homeless people during the cold weather nights that are forecasted over the next few weeks.
The request came after an unusually cold weather night last November where, for the first time in Comitis’ history, the homeless shelter didn’t have enough space to house all of the people who needed it, said Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates.
“I was very concerned, because right now there’s no other option in the city for emergency shelter other than the police gym, and that’s a really poor option,” he said at the meeting.
The number of homeless people in Aurora needing shelter has increased significantly over the past five years, Comitis officials have said.
On Feb. 24, Comitis housed 100 people, Oates said.
“From my perspective, this is a very, very modest and sensible investment,” Oates said.
Under the expenditure agreement, Comitis would bill the city when the homeless shelter is over capacity and needs part-time help to shelter more people on cold nights. The city would reserve up to $10,000 for Comitis.
James Gillespie, government relations liaison for Comitis, said in January there has been a 38 percent increase in homelessness over the past five years in the city.
He expects the number of homeless people needing a place to stay for the night to double in 2013.
In 2012, Comitis Crisis Center served 644 clients and saw about 1,100 overnight stays. Gillespie expects the number of overnight stays in 2013 to be between 2,200 and 2,500.
Reach reporter Sara Castellanos at 720-449-9036 or sara@aurorasentinel.com.
Come on now…..you all voted for the goverment to take care of you….you did vote for Obama…(santa clause)…i’m mean you would lick his feet if he asked you…i mean thats the best they can do? ….just on the very coldest nights and hopefully you get in…homelessness is a everyday thing…you need to have goverment take care of you 24/7….i mean your stupid… you can’t take or yourself….yea…lets see some more puppy dog eye’s.
Has anyone thought of maybe creating sleeping arrangements such as the capsule hotels in Japan to solve this issue? These capsule hotels are rectangular units measuring 2 m (6 ft 7 in) by 1 m (3 ft 3 in) by 1.25 m (4 ft 1 in). In Japan these are for profit, but if the state government funds shelters then why not these?Plus this would be a fraction of the cost of current shelters. Perhaps this would prevent anyone from being turned away.
Capsule hotels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel
I didn’t mean to post as a guest. But really, we can solve anything!