Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman met with three homeless men over the weekend and said on social media that the conversation reaffirmed his belief in a “work first” approach to homelessness. 

The three men Coffman met with were living in a hotel used by Denver, he said. The four met for breakfast at a truck stop near the hotel.

On Dec. 31, Coffman wrote, the three men were told they’d be arrested if they stayed at the encampment they lived in. They were told to pack their things into two large yellow trash bags and prepare to move into a hotel, Coffman wrote.

Initially, the men were told they’d have six months to stay in the hotel. But that was changed to three months, leaving the men worried that they had no plan for after their time at the hotel was up, he said.

The men had not met with a case manager and didn’t have access to any services, such as getting identification or job training. They were, however, getting three meals a day, access to a washer and dryer, and a cleaner to clean their rooms weekly, Coffman wrote. 

“What surprised me most was that they seemed to accept street life as normal,” Coffman wrote on social media. “When on the streets, they were kept busy with the day-to-day struggles to survive and, in comparison, found life boring inside the hotel, where their basic needs were met without having anything to do.”

Throughout his time as mayor, Coffman has emphasized Aurora’s desire to be a “work first” city, addressing homelessness through the goal of stable housing “earned through employment.”

“Success is not getting the unsheltered homeless off the streets only to make them permanent wards of the state at taxpayers’ expense,” Coffman said in his State of the City speech in December. “The taxpayers of our city, who are asked to foot the bill, who get up every morning to go to work, and who share in the adult responsibilities of life, deserve better.”

Aurora’s “work first” approach stands in stark contrast to Denver’s “housing first” strategy, which means housing is offered without preconditions, such as by requiring mental health treatment or work. Advocates of “housing first” argue that an individual’s most acute need is housing, which must be addressed first, before insisting on other services.

In his social media post Monday, Coffman said his conversation with the three homeless men also emphasized “the benefits of consolidating our resources in one location to help those who have experienced homelessness move forward with their lives.”

His comment on resource consolidation is in relation to the city’s planned homeless navigation campus, which will act as a “one-stop shop” for homelessness services in Aurora.

He expects to have the campus operational by early 2025, with tiers of shelter options that encourage people to engage in programs and available resources. 

The city voted to purchase a 13-acre hotel site, currently a Crowne Plaza hotel and convention center at 15550 E. 40th Ave. in Aurora, for the campus at a January meeting.