AURORA | The new Aurora Navigation Campus for homeless people is off to a rough start, with sewage backups and reports of “chaotic rules” and moving goalposts.
“I have been sent deeply concerning photos of the Navigation Center,” Aurora School Board member Kristin Mallory Westerberg said during Monday’s meeting. “This is a space where we were promised would offer dignity, safety and real pathways to jobs and permanent housing for our unhoused neighbors.
Instead, Westerberg and others say they’ve seen photos showing soiled towels left on the floor, sewer plumbing issues that appear unresolved, food waste on the ground and meals that fall far short of what anyone would consider “dignified or humane.”
The number of residents staying in the main, overnight shelter was not available at press time.
Westerberg spoke during public comment right before the city council was about to allocate state and federal grant funding for additional staffing funds for Advance Pathways, the nonprofit operator of the Navigation Campus.
A contract funding item was called up by Councilmember Alison Coombs, in order for city council to ask staff about the issue at the campus, which has been reported by multiple sources to council members, including a scathing review of the conditions and lack of professional know-how from the operators.
“After 31 days of operation, the Aurora Regional Navigation Center (ARNC) has proven to be less of a ‘navigation’ center and more of a rudderless ship in a maze of frustration, sinking in a sea of administrative incompetence,” Demetrius Rayden Johnson said in a review of the campus.
In the review, he described a moving goalpost of people never making it to the “mythical phase two,” the “‘moving carrot’ of progress,” Johnson called it.
He explained constant calls for emergency services for overdoses, unchecked drug use in the facility, tension and daily altercations, daily procedural changes, and security enforcing rules not finalized by the administration.
Coombs asked city legal officials whether the city can withhold payment to contractor Advance Pathways if lawmakers deem them unable to meet requirements in the contract.
Much of this has been confirmed by Sentinel sources on the campus.
The $38 million campus is what city officials refer to as a “hybrid model” offering a “no strings” homeless shelter and, in addition, on the same campus, work-first housing in first cubicles and eventually rooms at the former hotel.
Tier One is called the “compassion” level and aims to meet basic needs with few requirements from those accepting the basic shelter services. This tier is displayed as a shelter, restructuring large conference rooms into spacious rooms with cots, lockers and bathroom and showering spaces. There are 285 cots.
Tier Two, called the “courage” level, requires engaging with case managers and peer coaches. In this tier, people move from cots to beds in large dorm-like spaces with additional storage and cubby space, and they are called pods. The beds are built with walls on three or four sides for a little extra privacy. There are 114 pods.
Tier Three is called the “commitment” level and offers long-term, independent living additional commitments, including a requirement to hold a full-time job. This tier allows individuals to move into single and two-bed hotel rooms on the campus. People in this tier are given a separate entrance, private parking, and a shared kitchenette/living room with a fridge, microwave and televisions. There are 220 rooms in tier three, some of which are used for staff. The campus’s capacity for those using the entire shelter is 600 people.
During Monday’s city council meeting, concern for the living standards reported to the city council was bipartisan, and although city council approved to move forward in funding Advance Pathways, they warned of ongoing scrutiny.
Coombs said her concerns lie not only with the sewage, which she was told was being addressed, but also with people not being properly provided with the basic services promised to them. She was told that people were not being appropriately directed to case management, that phase two is inoperable, and people with disabilities are not being allowed to move to phase two and are expected to continue sleeping on the cots.
Additional concerns raised by community members, Coombs said, besides the plumbing, were the lack of functioning bathrooms, access to basic hygiene items like toilet paper, and the fact that the washing machines and dryers available to people in phase one were not functioning or accessible.
“So the basic level of services that are a part of the contract are not, it sounds like, being provided from testimony of folks that are there at the facility,” Coombs said.
City staff acknowledged many of the issues but attributed them largely to ongoing construction and the phased opening of the facility. According to Director of Housing and Community Services Jessica Prosser, the campus opened before construction was fully completed to provide shelter during cold weather.
Tier Two, which had been delayed due to lock and construction issues, opened in mid-to-late December, Prosser said. Stephanie Keiper, Manager of Homelessness Behavioral Health, said that more than 34 individuals had successfully transitioned from Tier One to Tier Two, with additional transitions ongoing.
“All the items you just expressed actually were on our agenda this afternoon when we met with them, to be addressed, so they are coming through,” Prosser said. “(Advance Pathways) is still working on having full operations set up with all of the different parts of the facility that are within their agreement. We just transitioned the building over to them at the end of December.”
Advance Pathways is also still hiring case managers and management staff, though security positions are reportedly fully staffed, Kieper said. The city holds weekly meetings with the operator, will receive monthly and quarterly performance reports, and has established a grievance process for residents and neighbors, she said.
Councilmember Angela Lawson demanded an answer to when the toilet issue would be fixed, and city staff said it could be by the end of the week. Keiper said there are currently eight portable toilets available, two of which are ADA accessible. Prosser also said that people in the shelter can walk to other parts of the campus where the plumbing is working.
City council members such as Coombs, Stephanie Hancock, Françoise Bergan, Lawson and Gianina Horton confirmed that scrutiny will continue until the campus is functioning in compliance with the operation agreement the city holds with Advance Pathways.
“Dignity is not optional,” Westerberg said Monday. “It is not a bonus. It is the baseline.”
OK. So the center is open now and the logistics are showing their ugly heads: lack of basic services, such as functioning bathrooms, hygiene items, and washing machines. Those ‘cots’ in the great area are ridiculous. Should people be screened for drugs….I think so. Should there be security on site. Absolutely. Come on new council get with the program, huh?
To the surprise of absolutely no one. Turns out that initiatives like this require actual foresight and planning.
I believe that the City has placed a lot of foresight and planning into this living arrangement for the homeless. What the City planners, Councilmembers and almost all social workers don’t or won’t understand is how meth heads and heroin addicts think and want to live day to day. There is no tomorrow for them. If the “guests” don’t believe in tomorrow, the program will never succeed.
Not to mention how they care about other peoples property. They will have this property destroyed before you can say, “give me another fix”. All the while the City Council will argue about the actual problems in the structure.
For you out there that think that hard drug use isn’t the biggest problem that this program and homelessness faces, then I say to you, “I wish I was wrong and you are very naive”.
The Mayor knows but everyone make fun of him for the week that he went underground, years ago. The police know. Only a few social workers know. I find this an interesting experiment to watch. I hope I’m wrong. It won’t take much time to see how it works out.
Advance Pathways Administration team have no clue of homeless service. Most are in recovery themselves and some veered off that recovery path and had to start over on recovery journey. Recovery has been their focus at the ARNC however their recovery homes were unsuccessful. Clients would complain of hate speech from staff. The nepotism there is wildly unprofessional. MHBHC was way more prepared to take on this mountain of homeless services and recovery.
Leave the homeless, outside.
I became homeless bc my gfs brother let the home we shared go into foreclosure. We are not on drugs, and this place is so terrible that we choose to live in my car instead of enduring the detention-center atmosphere. Stefon must go. Is DIGNITY walking in literal s*** and being denied a shower for over a week? Don’t pretend that everyone that is homeless has a substance abuse problem, some of us just have a problem!
As we watched the marathon council meeting Monday night, we learned Advance Pathways the NGO operator of the new homeless hotel for the city a few issues have started to surface. A portion of the building has major issues with the plumbing. Did this exist as an ongoing problem for many years before Advance took the controls? The finger pointing of who’s responsible comes to light in the meeting. CM Lawson, did not back down asking the right questions. She was firm demanding the Aurora staff answer her, which the staff seemed awkward with any solid explanations. In short, they had no answer, they were overwhelmed. This is essentially a newly reconditioned and reengineered old building. CM Lawson, asked those pertinent pesky questions. I’m confident she will have plenty more to ask as this goes on. The center is only at 50% of population of what is expected. Advance says they are “still working” to get more qualified staff online. This thing is a 24/7 non- stop large size, multi-million-dollar machine the city committed taxpayers to. A review from the only IRS returns available listed for Advance, the IRS Form 990 show Advance INC. as a NGO first started in 2023 with one fulltime paid employee, 2024, no returns on file. The city awarded an additional $140K grant Monday night to the NGO with little to no track record of any performance. We already pay Advance for their services as the operator by contract. And the same Form 990 has added a very interesting disclosure. “ Board members and employees are required to bring any potential conflicts that arise over the course of the year to the attention of the executive director or board chair. Failure to disclose the fact of a conflict or potential conflict may constitute grounds for disciplinary action” The famous Conflict of Interest Warning. Guess who, is on the Board of Directors? Ever hear of a guy, Mike Coffman? Is the mayor voting on these Advance matters? You wonder, did the city do any vetting of these NGOs for grants. Further, who we get into a high-profile contract concerned with social instability and disfunction with? Talk about vetting, now you have to wonder, did anyone in the city bother to look at professional camera scoping the sewer main, and artery sewer lines before closing on the building? Maybe the old sewer was never expected to handle the new increased workload? This system is a critical function of the building. I guess we will find this out, shortly.
Absolutely no help for the mentally ill who need it the most. Defecating and urinating on the floors in the bathrooms as well as everyday flooding the toilets has made this place no more than a sanctuary of mentally ill people. With so many mentally disturbed persons attempting to destroy the buildings infrastructure how in the world can those who’s situations are simply financial benefit? Instead of appeasing the wealthy residents of this state by trying to simply hide these people why not actually help them? This is the main reason why this will never work. Advanced Pathways as well as the Mayor and the other higher ups should be ashamed of themselves for lying to the public about this place. The truth is the city just needed a place to hide these people. PERIOD…..
I am an actual individual with mental and physical disabilities and chronic health conditions, limitations and restrictions that are more problematic since I have been living at Aurora Regional Navigation Center. The conditions are far worse than reported and the policy and conditions are indignant, deplorable and physically, mentally and emotionally beyond “CRISIS”. There are more than 300 men, women and dogs currently being housed without case management, crisis intervention, security, mental health professionals, daily meals, etc. There are zero working toilets, sinks, and showers are not working or cold and bagged over and taped and bathrooms are barricaded instead of cleaned or repaired. I was showering and at the same time the drain was backing up back into my shower and was yellow and smelled of waste and urine. Zero staff are professionally trained to deal with a population of people that are disabled and needing reasonable accommodations. Also, not professionally trained/coached to deal with the population suffering not just from homelessness but mental, physical and/or drug addicted persons. The food is being reconstituted and not held at safe temperatures and reused for days with the same proteins and reheated and renamed as lasagna, hash, etc. There are people that have been at this facility for weeks and since they opened in November and still have not received a case manager or the resources and support promised.
The presence of security are intermittent and do not deescalate but their personal agenda is of their own best interests and most have quit or being fired. The program is already short staffed but they continue to so called “house the unhoused” by accepting more people to be subjected to the dysfunction and disrespect for humanity, empathy and zero transparency. Since the bathrooms are not useable they had approximately 10 porta potty staged outside in the cold and/or dark BACK parking lot. I witnessed staff/security refuse to help or accommodate the disabled in wheelchairs with anything excluding “REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS” and legal priority for ADA regulations. I was literally kicked out by ONE security with an elementary mindset to control, manipulate, disrespect and degrade without discretion or approval. I was kicked out on one of the coldest nights because I went outside to use the potty and was told that I had to go back outside and get behind a line of 30+ people that had not been cleared and searched. They kept referring to their “POLICY’S” and I am sure their policy was never to make humans use the toilet in the parking lot, bathrooms and hallways. I had a panic attack and had already been diagnosed with pneumonia and had to ask a different security that escorted me back to tier two and refused to allow me to retrieve my essential belongs/bags that had already been searched. I was transported by medics to UC Hospital and admitted for four days and I am currently at the Comitis Recovery Center for respite care for rest and recovery from pneumonia. I am being discharged from respite care back to the Aurora Regional shelter on Monday with no other options and I fear retaliatory policies by staff and/or peers of the Advanced Pathways affiliates. I fear being sexually assaulted and literally being stalked by homeless men/pedophiles from the shelter to the hotel I was staying. The situation became so severe that I had to previously contact law enforcement and filed a police report and had to stay and pay full room rates at the Econo Lodge hotel that is located only three blocks away. They often run out of food and forced back into the community from 8am-8pm without access to any tier between those hours. There is constant conflict, fights and drug use onsite and medics and law enforcement responding at least 10x on a daily basis. Women are forced to wake up EVERYDAY at 530am to be rushed to the hallway by 630am and forced to congregate and stand in the hallways until 8am when they allow people to leave and/or sit in the overcrowded day area until after dinner at 8pm.
Black Mold verified