Aurora City Council approved a resolution that directs the city manager to ensure that Aurora’s navigation campus follows a “work first” approach to homelessness.

Purchased by the city in January, the proposed Aurora Regional Navigation Campus will consolidate services for homeless people in one location once it is established in early 2025, according to city plans.

Sponsored by Mayor Pro Tem Dustin Zvonek, councilmembers approved the resolution, 7-3, with Councilmembers Alison Coombs, Crystal Murillo and Ruben Medina in opposition.

Under the resolution, the navigation center will focus on “reducing homelessness through employment” and that treatment strategies will help individuals “improve self-sufficiency and maintain stable housing.”

The resolution serves as a “blueprint” for Aurora’s “work first” model  to homelessness, and more specifically, it outlines the three-tier approach to the city’s navigation campus, according to Zvonek.

The campus at Crowne Plaza will have three tiers, the first of which will be a “low-barrier” shelter with congregate housing for people who need services but aren’t working with case managers yet.

The second tier will require people to work part time, including jobs in and around the facility, and participation in programs for addiction and mental health recovery and job training. The second tier will have “materially better” living conditions, Coffman said.

People in the third tier will have “even better” living conditions, including a private room.

“We believe this resolution creates a plan for the Aurora Navigation Campus to become a blueprint for other homeless shelters and navigation campuses,” said Zvonek on Monday night.

Coombs said she would not support the resolution and argued that discussion around the navigation campus is a “misrepresentation of housing first strategies.”

“I certainly support making sure that people have access to work services, but doing it in this particular manner is also not proven to be as effective as what they do in Denver,” said Coombs.

The recommendations in this resolution fall in line with Aurora’s “tough love” approach to homelessness, which measures success by employment and self-sufficiency, rather than how many people are taken off the streets.

That strategy stands in stark contrast to Denver, which has adopted a “housing first” approach, in which the goal is to get people off the streets and offer them services after, regardless of whether they accept the additional help.

“Denver is a housing-first city, Aurora is a work-first city, and we will offer a great test between the two,” Zvonek said to councilmembers during the meeting.

Murillo also opposed the resolution, while critiquing Denver’s approach to homelessness.

“I’m no fan of how Denver doesn’t solve their homeless workforce, but there are other housing first models that have been proven to be effective,” said Murillo.

An annual homelessness count in Aurora showed that the city saw over a 20% increase in homelessness from 2023 to 2024.

In 2023, there were roughly 572 homeless people in Aurora. This year, the survey counted 697 homeless people — an increase of 125.

In comparison, Denver’s homeless population rose by 721, which accounted for 79% of the increase — 925 more — in the metropolis.

The point in time count is a survey of homeless people throughout Metro Denver on a single night in January. It seeks to obtain several data points, such as demographics and the reasons for homelessness.

Some 47% of the homeless population in Aurora from the 2024 count were considered “unsheltered.” In 2023, that percentage stood at 28%.

The “unsheltered” category refers to people who sleep in public spaces, such as parks or under bridges, as well as in cars.

Coffman and Zvonek expressed hope the navigation campus will help get people out of homelessness and into self-sufficiency. Zvonek stressed the importance of measuring success via self-sufficiency and defined it as “using the lowest level of public subsidies as possible and producing self-support through employment.”

Denver Gazette Reporter Kyla Pearce contributed to this report.