File Photo by PHILIP B. POSTON/Sentinel Colorado
After about four years of Aurora leaders striking, repeatedly, at the heart of the region’s pernicious homeless crisis, the city is ready to move ahead — and spend more money.
If luck, rather than science and internationally accepted best practices prevail, housed and unhoused Aurora residents will see fewer homeless people camping in public places, or invisibly being homeless at someone’s house.
An Aurora City Council, rife with lawmakers who frequently wish against accepted science and reality rather than embrace it, said it is determined to address the homeless crisis, again.
If you weren’t listening to the same lawmakers almost four years ago, the message is pretty much the same.
Led by Mayor Mike Coffman, the city council has backed, again, a “work first” approach to trying to coax homeless people out of their tents and out of city parks and medians and into a $40 million shelter and service center.
Next year, the city will complete converting the now-closed Crowne Plaza Hotel in far northwest Aurora into a homeless “Navigation Center.”
Hotel rooms will be reserved for homeless people who commit to work and sobriety programs, if there’s space. Others sent to the center after being removed from public camping sites can use an overnight congregate shelter, if there’s space.
The rest of the center will be for job training and health and social services.
The estimated cost of running the project is at least $2 million a year, funded by the city and surrounding counties.
If you’re wondering how well the city’s tough-love, work-first mandate went during the last almost four years, you only have to look for yourself in parks, alleys, open spaces and at bus stops.
The most recent Point in Time count of homeless people in the region made clear there are just about the same number of unhoused and housed homeless people now as there were before Aurora implemented its “this is it” camping ban in 2021.
Denver has had one type of homeless camping ban or another for about a decade.
They don’t work. They simply herd homeless people from place to place, from city to city.
It isn’t that Aurora lawmakers weren’t warned that a ban on homeless camping would both just harass homeless people into moving somewhere nearby.
Ready to up the ante, new requirements in the making will allow police to ticket homeless people who don’t, or can’t, move along to a new camping site, moving them closer to fines and jail time for vagrancy and trespassing.
The city has been repeatedly warned that making homelessness a criminal, jailable offense, at great expense to taxpayers, will only end with turning homeless people in jail back to this same community to continue being homeless, and now with a criminal record.
Expert after expert, study after study contradicts the majority on city council supporting insistence that tough-love homeless programs will make a difference in the problem here.
While centralized services make good sense in addressing a population with serious commuting problems, reserving services for those who meet the desires of city leaders will result in no or little change in the problem.
The list of accredited, vetted studies from not just across the nation, but around the world, are consistent and compelling. If a community provides shelter to someone who has none, regardless of psychiatric, addiction or other problems, the odds of them regaining the ability to house and care for themselves increases over requiring “good” behavior before being granted a safe place to live.
Here are just a few:
“At Home/Chez Soi: Final Report” by Health Canada and the Mental Health Commission of Canada in 2014 — The study found that Housing First was highly effective in reducing homelessness and improving quality of life for participants.
“The National Evaluation of the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program” by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2013. Although not focused solely on Housing First, this evaluation demonstrated that rapid rehousing significantly reduced homelessness in the United States.
“The Effectiveness of Housing First Programs” by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in 2016 — This review of Housing First programs compiled evidence from multiple studies and concluded that Housing First is one of the most effective models for reducing homelessness, improving housing stability, and supporting mental health recovery.
“The HUD-VASH Program: Housing First for Veterans” by The National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in 2020 — The HUD-VASH program, which combines Housing First with case management services for veterans, has shown high success rates in reducing homelessness among veterans. The program has been widely cited as a model for combining housing and supportive services to address homelessness effectively.
There are dozens more studies with similar conclusions.
It isn’t that there won’t be homeless people willing to fill hotel rooms at the city’s Navigation Center. It’s just that thousands of homeless people will remain that way because of restrictions that offer no more chance of success than just, first, making sure a homeless person has a safe place to sleep.
Tragically, as the city moves toward this evolving approach, Aurora is closing sites where tiny Pallet shelters have provided just the safe sleeping space, without stiff commitments, that have allowed people to move out of and into permanent housing, instead of a tent along I-225.
There is no cure for the problem, because it’s complex and varied. As long as there are communities, there will be homeless people among them.
But real science shows that increasing access to affordable housing, education, job training and healthcare — without restrictions — makes huge strides in ensuring people are able to care for themselves, off the streets.
While the city is engaged in negotiating details with a contractor, Aurora officials should seek out experts to advise them on how best to operate this new center and fashion changes in laws to work toward and not against the goal of helping people without homes acquire one.
Acting now can save taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, only to reach the same conclusion in three or four years that taxpayers can clearly see for themselves from the last three or four years.
The point of this facility is to get some portion of the visible homeless population out of sight, out of mind. Next, Coffman and his toadies will pretend they did something to solve the problem and will use their shell game to justify using police violence on the remainder of the poorest people in the city. As always, the cruelty is the point.
The new homeless center will be a safe stop for anyone experiencing homelessness. With the help of trained and dedicated staff, individuals will choose their own path forward. Some might decide to reunite with family. Some might go live with friends. There will be some ready for rehab. Some will get connected with an employer. Some will opt to move to other cities. Wanted homeless criminals will be given shelter in a detention facility. Many down-on-their-luck individuals will avail themselves of longterm support from the many generous charity organizations dedicated to helping those in need.
But, one thing will NOT be an option for the homeless and that is camping in the city of Aurora. Yea!
This is an excellent review of projects that have actually worked, something Carson and his followers obviously haven’t done. I will say,however, it is a typically conservative plan, something they might try with their children in connection with giving them an allowance. Or in some cases before kicking them out of the house.
If by conservative you mean that individuals are required to live within the guidelines of the community—yes. However this plan is also very liberal in that a large amount of government resources are being invested towards helping a very small, very vulnerable population.
Why not give the new navigation center a chance?
I’ve been an advocate for helping the homeless for years. But $40,000,000???
Did you actually read the article?
If the city council is trying to cut costs, and/or do away with an inconvenient taxing mechanism like the employee tax, they should be willing to read studies or listen to experts about the success rates of similar programs they want to try. It never works to push an unsuccessful program just because it provides political talking points. The city could use a council with some intellectual curiosity and a willingness to listen!
After 4 years of listening to Dr. Fauci make false claims under the rubric of “science,” I think we’ve all had enough of left-wing liberals bastardizing the term “science” to bolster their conclusions and ideologies. Science, and the Scientific Method are the procedures we use to understand truths about how our world works. The more correct term to use in this article would be “statistics,” not “science.”
The first report mentioned suggested the astounding and unexpected conclusion that if you provide the homeless with a home, it reduces homelessness. Who would have thought! How’s that for circular reasoning.
It is also suggested that camping bans do not work. Well, that depends on how you define “work.” If a success in this matter is only defined as getting people into houses, then anything less than that is therefore a failure, and doesn’t work. Camping bans, and their enforcement, keep people from claiming public property as their own and are very effective in this regard.
What this entire article is about has little to do with science, but is simply a view by left-wing socialists (communists) that the State should be responsible for everyone’s financial well-being. No sell! The ultimate strength of our nation has always been upon each individual doing their part by contributing to the good of our communities. Expecting those wanting help to first show some motivation to change their lifestyle is the best way to go. Given time, statistics will show this to be the case.
Certainly hasn’t proved being the case in the past. How about throwing another $40,000,000 at the issue. Where’s this money coming from???
I’m sorry, but perhaps you could enlighten us on your own expertise: Where did you obtain your degrees and practice in what sciences? Where is your advanced degree in epidemiology and any other medical sciences?
What “lies” did Fauci tell?
Please be specific. Points off for unsubstantiated or otherwise unsupported paranoid claims.
Facts first. Always.
If the City wishes to provide social services it should become a county and tax like a county to support those social services. Otherwise, leave efforts such as this to the ocunties, where it belongs.
Looks like an idea that “coffman pretending to be homeless & decides after 2 days he knows it all” would push, against all qualified and experienced advice. The council doesn’t believe now in experts and facts, doesn’t even bother to talk to them. Typical. Just pushing crazy coffman’s belief that if you order unhoused people to do what you want, go where you want, do it quickly according to your orders with no regard for each individual and their needs and issues, that’s all it takes. They actually need wrap-around services and long-term case managers, who are experts and understand that after a year of homelessness, most life coping skills are lost, and hard to leave the homeless community, and takes long time and much compassionate and skilled assistance to make progress toward self-sufficiency with people they trust over time, and setbacks expected, and slow progress for most, and some are no longer capable of even that. I’ve done this work for many years at The Gathering Place, with success, but it’s a multi+-year process for almost everyone and a lot of assistance. But nobody asked me.
What Mayor Coffman’s exercise in homelessness taught us is that a significant portion of the homeless population are not victims, but individuals living a chosen lifestyle – something advocates have been trying to hide for a long time. This is not to say that it is not a struggle, but it’s not that bad once you get used to it. It sure beats getting a job for 8 hours a day being told what to do. It’s great being free all day and you can get by just fine with all the support of government programs and help from well-meaning citizens.
The fact is that there are homeless people who want to become contributing members of society but feel stuck in place, and those who don’t but are more than willing to accept whatever handouts are offered. We should focus on the former.
And another “expert” chimes in.
Thank you.
Hey Debra MacKillop, I see your undying hatred of our Mayor continues after reading your comments.
By the way, there is a clear reason why nobody asks you. No one believes what you say nor understands your logic other than other “social workers”. And this is a social program that you complain about.
Guess you didn’t qualify for a job at that location.
DICK MOORE neither do you qualify. I’ve read your posts over the past few years. You have nothing substantial to say about any subject and never a solultion. The mayor has, does and will bring all this on himself. Why did you even vote for him.???
Denver Mayor Johnstons plan offers no practical means of achieving its stated goals it pledged to do. One statement, “to reduce unsheltered homelessness by 50% from 2022 to 2026”. Watching Denver leaders and their distinctly underwhelming success you simply can’t ignore this chaotic problem. Now after buying hotels in different locations, three hotels on Qubec street all within a mile or two of each other has turned Qubec street into Denver’s newest and largest homeless-hotel-skid-row. Entirely homegrown from Hickenlooper’s synthetic social-safety- net- “Denver’s Road Home,” assembled in 2005 and continues headed to nowheresville. Aurora, now coming with their newest approach, the Crown Center Hotel’s recreation into north Aurora’s newest homeless Disneyland something for everyone. Interestingly plenty of human behavioral experts contributed their thoughts along the way in this highly subsidized social- experiment of doing something. In the end – we already know that’s all it really is anyway.
I read your ‘take’. So what’s your solution Dean68? Just incarcerate everybody? Talk about that for a while. The cost to the homeless, the kids, the county, the city, the jail staff….where and what does that get us? If you aren’t incarcerating them, then what is it you want to do? Please enlighten us.