Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman Spends Friday Nights in Homeless Shelter

Since 2024, Aurora, Colorado Mayor Mike Coffman, 71, has spent nearly every Friday night sleeping at the Aurora Regional Navigation Center (ARNC), a 600-bed transitional housing campus in a former Crowne Plaza hotel. He arrives with almost nothing, uses a provided blanket and cot, and sleeps in his everyday clothes. On Saturday mornings, he helps serve breakfast. Coffman stays in Tier One, the entry-level congregate shelter. In 2021, he lived undercover as a homeless veteran for a week in Aurora and Denver, which shaped his push to create the ARNC. The center uses a three-tier incentive-based system moving residents from emergency shelter to job training, treatment, and permanent housing. Coffman views his overnight stays as quality control to evaluate the model's effectiveness. Over time, residents have recognized him, building trust. He plans to continue until the program reaches its full potential, aiming to create a replicable model for other cities.