The Aurora City Council won’t immediately tackle two proposals that deal with homeless funding, which means that the nonprofits hoping to get the money won’t know until the New Year has begun.

Aurora is considering cutting funding for homelessness services, in some cases, completely zeroing out the dollars for a few nonprofits in what appears to be a shift in the city’s priorities.  

Aurora’s mayor and a councilmember brought up two proposals at Monday night’s council meeting, but the council voted to move tackling the proposals to a budget meeting in February. 

The debate about city funding for homeless service providers has been going on since city staffers recommended that the council cut or limit funds to several organizations that provide services to homeless people in Aurora following a dip in the local government’s revenues. 

Specifically, Aurora has seen a significant decrease in marijuana tax funds that support homeless service providers in the city.

At Monday night’s meeting, Councilmember Alison Coombs pushed for flat funding – meaning the city would provide the money, instead of redirecting it elsewhere – for the providers through the next year. She argued the organizations are providing necessary services to the city.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman also brought up a second proposal that would incrementally reduce funding to the organizations, rather than immediately implement the cuts, as the recommendations suggested.

Coffman’s proposal seeks to cut the funding down to two thirds of their full amount, then to one third by the next year.

The city can’t budget for multiple years, but Coffman said the expectation would be that the organizations would be on a “glide path down,” rather than “to a cliff.” 

Other councilmembers countered they will tackle the proposals during a budget meeting in February. That would give the officials time to “look at this holistically” and make sure they’re prioritizing what’s most important, Councilmember Francoise Bergan said.

Coffman, who usually agrees with his fellow conservative councilmembers, asked the council to consider supporting either his or Coombs’ proposal.

Coombs unsuccessfully pushed for her proposal to be added to a previous budget workshop.

The recommendations from staff appear to reflect a shift in the city’s priorities. Some of the funding would instead go to behavioral and recovery programs, as well as domestic violence services.

A city official described the priority as essential “life-saving” services.

Homelessness division officials recommended the money go to the following:

• Over $900,000 to Mile High Behavioral Healthcare
• Almost $300,000 to Aurora Housing Authority
• $190,000 to Restoration Christian Ministries
• $180,000 to the Salvation Army
• $120,000 to Aurora Mental Health and Recovery
• $85,000 to Gateway Domestic Violence
• $75,000 to Colorado Safe Parking Initiative
• $17,000 to SungateKids

They did not recommend earmarking any funds for Bridge House, Family Tree or the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.

“If we move this to February, these providers are going to cut programs as we’re entering the coldest part of the year,” Coombs said. “They don’t just sit and wait months and months and months for us to get our act together.” 

The funding in question would go to providers that are operating programs that Aurora requires, not just operating for themselves, Coombs said. By moving the decision, the council is “making a choice to ignore” their obligation to care for their constituents and “make sure that people have food and that they, frankly, don’t die in the cold,” she said. 

Coffman agreed, saying pushing the matter to February would mean there would not be funding for those programs in January. 

Bergan said Coombs’ claim that “we are going to have people dying in the streets” is “quite the exaggeration.”

The city is funding providers, Bergan said, just not to the extent that they have in the past due to cuts in revenue.

Staff recommended cuts so the council could decide how to most responsibly spend the city’s money, given that the budget must also include other services beyond homelessness programs, she said.

The providers should have enough money to make it through mid-year at least, said Bergan, who asked that the council analyze the proposals at February’s budget workshop.

Coombs argued that the organizations asking the council for additional funding have “made it abundantly clear” that they’ll have to cut programs in proportion to budget cuts as of Jan. 1.

The majority of the council voted to move the proposals to the budget workshop on Feb. 3. Coffman, Coombs and Councilmember Ruben Medina voted “no.”