Aurora councilmembers passed several housing-related agenda items in Monday night’s meeting, approving grant funding for an additional homeless program staff member and the extension of an eviction services program.

The council unanimously approved accepting grant funding from the Colorado State Department of Local Affairs. The grant gives the city $90,000, which the city will match, to hire an additional person onto the three-member City of Aurora Homelessness Division.

City officials applied for the grant in September, asking for funding for additional outreach workers. They were awarded the grant in January, according to council documents.

The addition of a member to the team will help them “move people off the streets” and “work in conjunction with the Navigation Campus,” council documents said.

The campus, which is slated to open this year, 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.

Tier two will require people to work part time and participate in programs for addiction, mental health recovery and job training, and will have more private, higher quality living conditions.

The third tier, for those working full time but not yet ready to find housing on their own, will have private rooms.

In conjunction, the city will start operating a new court specifically meant to deal with low level offenses by homeless people, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman earlier said.

The court is not operational yet but soon will be, he added.

Colorado’s Homeless Resolution Program, previously called the Emergency Solutions Grant, comes from the Division of Housing, and is awarded after a “competitive” application process, according to the state’s website.

It is awarded to local governments, homeless service providers, nonprofits and continuum of care programs.

Also Monday night, the council unanimously approved the continuation of an intergovernmental agreement with Adams County, several cities and Colorado Legal Services to fund the Legal Services Eviction Clinic, which provides legal assistance to low-income households to try to prevent homelessness, according to council documents.

The program initially started as a pilot program in 2018, when Aurora entered into the agreement with Adams County and the cities of Westminster, Thornton, Federal Heights, Brighton, Commerce City, Northglenn and Broomfield. Every two years since, the council has approved a renewal of the program.

The program is intended to help people in low-income households prevent or mitigate the impacts of displacement or homelessness, council documents said.

In 2024, Colorado Legal Services helped 221 residents in 41 households from Aurora through the program, according to council documents. Across Adams County, there were 229 households assisted, council documents said.

The total annual cost of the program is around $220,000, contributed to by the various entities involved, with Aurora’s portion adding up to $25,000 for the next year. Aurora’s portion is a budgeted expense in the marijuana fund.

Aurora’s 2024 point in time homelessness count, which happened in January, found 697 homeless people. That was 125 more than the year before.

The city’s proposed 2025 budget includes $5.9 million to address homelessness, including funding for the navigation campus, according to previous Denver Gazette reporting. Another $220,000 will go toward the HEART court through the city’s judicial budget.