We have come upon more people experiencing homelessness in the Havana District lately. Many people have come to Colorado for one reason or another and have found themselves homeless, out of funds, and really wanting to just go home. Aurora has recently taken some major steps in attempting to help people experiencing homelessness.
Aurora’s Flexible Housing Fund: An update on this program was shared at a recent Housing, Neighborhood Services and Redevelopment policy committee meeting. Since creation earlier this year, Aurora’s Homeward Bound program has spent $3,250 to help 18 adults and 8 children experiencing homelessness here in Aurora return home to the states from which they came.
To qualify for this program, the person experiencing homelessness needs to have someone agreeing to take them in or needs to have a job waiting for them at their destination. The staff at the Day Resource Center (DRC) makes calls and confirms arrangements. The DRC Staff makes sure that they are not just giving people experiencing homelessness here in Aurora a ticket to another state just to have them experience homelessness again at their destination. People experiencing homelessness wanting help through the Homeward Bound program are required to fill out an application at the DRC or through one of its community partners, and the information given will be verified.
Homeward Bound Program help can be in the form of a gas card, a bus ticket, train ticket or in some cases plane ticket, depending on the situation. We have successfully worked with this program in the Havana District to help people we see experiencing homelessness in our area.
Homeward Bound is one of three programs in the Flexible Housing Fund approved by City Council earlier this fall. The program is funded by marijuana tax revenue coming into Aurora and through private donations. The other two programs include the Eviction Prevention Program, which helps people who are currently housed but facing eviction by providing a little assistance in certain situations to help pay delinquent rent, and the Re-Housing Assistance Program which was created initially to assist with finding housing for those people displaced from the King’s Inn on Colfax earlier this year.
You can make a tax-deductible donation to the Flexible Housing Fund through Spirit of Aurora by calling 303-739-7051.