Conventional wisdom holds that Colorado’s chronically homeless live on the streets by chance rather than choice; that cruel fate beyond their control upended their lives. 

But plain old common sense tells us that, for many of them, that’s in fact not the case. Particularly the many who are in the throes of addiction, perhaps on the run from personal responsibilities or, often enough, from the law, simply have made the wrong choices in life. 

With that realization comes practical wisdom — the kind that tells us we can’t truly help people whose misery is largely self-inflicted until we stop viewing them as victims. That’s when it becomes clear they need the proverbial hand up rather than a handout.

Such breakthrough thinking is now being put to work on behalf of the chronically homeless by the elected leaders in Colorado’s third-largest city, Aurora. Other Colorado communities, especially Denver, would do well to examine Aurora’s progress as it implements what Mayor Mike Coffman calls a “tough love” approach to healing the homeless. 

Socially and economically wide-ranging Aurora shares some of the most challenging cityscapes with neighboring Denver — yet is rising to that challenge very differently than has the Mile High City.

As noted in a Gazette report profiling the effort this week, Aurora is measuring success by how many people it can restore to employment and self-sufficiency — not just how many it can take off the streets and house, as under the policy of Denver’s Mayor Mike Johnston. Aurora combines several key components into an integrated effort dubbed H.E.A.R.T. — for housing, employment, addiction, recovery and teamwork — that combines carrot and stick.

Among the key ingredients of the Aurora program is an unqualified ban on urban “camping,” including transient camps that are eyesores as well as dens of crime, drugs and disorderly conduct. A police team of six swiftly enforces the measure and already is doing its work.

Aurora officials also have created a new court system meant to handle low-level offenses by homeless people as the city enforces the camping ban. It’s the stage at which they get the chance at a fresh start. The idea is to give low-level offenders the option to either go on probation with a court order to participate in programs to restore them to self-sufficiency — including much-needed addiction rehabilitation and mental health treatment — or go to jail.

The programs in which participants engage vary from one offender to the next and can take the better part of a year to complete. The idea is to reorient the homeless toward employment and independent housing as well as to move them beyond addiction.

Another cornerstone will be the city’s soon-to-open homeless navigation campus — a “one-stop shop” for homeless services and shelter that will expand the city’s shelter bed availability. Unlike other shelters, however, it will work in conjunction with other facets of H.E.A.R.T. to keep the homeless moving upward and onward — rather than continued dependency on alcohol, drugs and the largesse of public assistance.

Many in the homeless-services establishment will of course balk at Aurora’s unconventional approach, and placing expectations on assistance, backed by law enforcement won’t sit well with a lot of the homeless. But what some other Colorado communities have been doing just isn’t working. 

Aurora City Hall’s willingness to think outside the box is laudable — and has promising prospects for success.