COFFMAN: Aurora center will provide aid and incentives to the area’s homeless

The City of Aurora has been funding a shelter to help the area’s homeless since the city repurposed a shuttered U.S. Army gym in 2015, a gym that was built in the 1940s at the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center which is now the Anschutz Medical Campus.

It became the Aurora Day Resources Center to help those experiencing homelessness. 

The day center provided limited services. It was just a place to stay, shower, do laundry, get a meal and have a temporary space to get out of the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter. It was only a day shelter but that became a 24-hour shelter during severe weather and during the COVID pandemic. 

Given the age of the day center, and the fact that it was never meant to be used for so long, it was difficult to maintain, and it was inadequate to serve the needs of the area’s homeless from the start. The day center had a capacity for serving no more than 200 individuals during a weather emergency, and that was with individuals sleeping on mats on the floor.

The new Aurora Regional Navigation Center, however, has a capacity of serving 600 individuals with a capacity to go beyond that under emergency conditions, such as during severe weather. 

In 2022, the City of Aurora begin looking at different options to meet the needs of those experiencing homelessness and, after visiting programs in Houston, San Antonio, Denver, and Colorado Springs, the city settled on an incentive-based system closer to the Haven for Hope program in San Antonio, Texas and the Rescue Mission in Colorado Springs. 

The next question was whether to build from the ground up or to buy an existing building. Two important issues came together that helped us make the decision. The first was access to federal funding made possible under the Biden era “American Rescue Plan Act” that provided state and local governments with one-time COVID pandemic federal relief funds. 

The 255-room Crowne Plaza Hotel and Conference Center, at Chambers Road and Interstate 70, was up for sale and staff recommended that it would be cheaper and quicker to buy the facility than to build from the ground up. The total cost to purchase and renovate the hotel and conference center came to $40 million. 

The $40 million necessary to purchase and renovate the facility came from ARPA dollars from Adams County, Arapahoe County, Douglas County, the city of Aurora and the State of Colorado, who authorized their ARPA funding for five new regional navigation centers in the nine-county Denver Metro area to serve the needs of the homeless. 

The next step was to select a nonprofit contractor to operate the ARNC and the city chose Advance Pathways who not only agreed to the program’s design but committed to raise the money necessary to cover the majority of the ongoing operating budget, estimated to be up to $10 million. The City of Aurora’s share will be approximately $2 million, which is what we had spent annually on the day center. 

This fundraising requirement puts enormous pressure on Advance Pathways to deliver on the promise of helping individuals experiencing homelessness under the incentive-based approach. The Daniels Fund, the Anschutz Family Foundation, and the Dakota Foundation have already committed to financially supporting the program. 

The incentive-based program at the ARNC is divided into three Tiers. Tier I is a congregate shelter with military-style cots and living conditions that are austere by design in order to encourage individuals to move to Tier II. 

In Tier II they will have semi-private living accommodations, a bed instead of a cot, more space to store their personal items, and better food options, such as hot meals instead of sandwiches, in exchange for participating in case-managed addiction recovery, mental health, and job training programs. 

Tier III is the 255 individual rooms of the former hotel that will be used for transitional housing for individuals working full-time but who are still in need of services. They will be required to pay a third of their income to help offset the cost of the program. 

I’m looking forward to seeing the results of this incentive-based approach and how it can make a difference in the lives of those experiencing homelessness. 

Mayor Mike Coffman is serving his second term as Aurora mayor. He is a former member of the U.S. House, state treasurer, Colorado secretary of state and served in both the state House and Senate.