We need more elected leaders like this.
From The Aurora Sentinel in Colorado:
An elderly woman struggling with her mental health, a day laborer with inconsistent work and a man who lost his job and then his apartment are just a few of the people that Mayor Mike Coffman has gotten to know over the last few months during his overnight weekly stays at the Aurora Regional Navigation Center.
Since late February, Coffman has spent his Friday nights and Saturday mornings at the Navigation Center’s Tier One overnight shelter for homeless people. He doesn’t bring much with him because the shelter provides him with a blanket and a cot for the night — in the same spot every week — and he says “everyone sleeps in their clothes.”
The center offers a tiered system with additional benefits at each level. Tier One offers basic shelter services, Tier Two requires engaging with case managers and peer coaches and Tier Three offers long-term, independent living with additional commitments, including a requirement to hold a full-time job.
It was loud at first, but he has gotten used to the occasional din of barking dogs and the ambient sounds of dozens of men on cots. The noise is easier to overcome than the discomfort of wearing noise-canceling headphones, Coffman said.
In the mornings, Coffman hands out milk as part of the breakfast available for Tier One guests.
His experience at the shelter has been eye-opening, he said.
“One thing I’ve learned is how complex everything is, and individualized,” Coffman said. “You can’t categorize people in any particular group. You have to see them as individuals. Quite frankly, it’s made me more compassionate.“
Coffman said he started sleeping at the shelter because he wanted to see how the Navigation Center’s services were working and find out where improvements could be made.
CBS’s David Begnaud featured the mayor in his newsletter:
Mayor Mike, a retired Marine and Army veteran, says it comes down to a principle he learned while in uniform: “Never ask somebody to do something you yourself would not do.”
But here’s the part of this story that moved us most: those Friday nights have changed him. Back in 2021, the Republican former congressman spent a week living on the streets and drew fire for calling homelessness “a lifestyle choice.” Ask him now, after months of sleeping beside the people who don’t have anywhere else to go, he says, “The people I see are much more desperate, it’s not a fad. One thing I learned is just how easy it is to lose your housing and how hard it is to get it back…”
…And he’s turning that compassion into action by meeting with caseworkers and pushing for changes so that nobody gets stuck or forgotten. “We’re not there to warehouse people,” he says. “Until it’s where I want it to be, I’m going to be sleeping there every Friday night.”
Mayor Mike could’ve just read the reports or taken the briefings. Instead, he’ll tell you: “The information I get could never be replicated by looking from the outside in. It’s being on the inside. It’s being with them.”
His goal is to transform a former hotel and conference center into 255 individual rooms of transitional housing reserved for residents who are working full-time and ready for a place of their own.
Most of us encounter homeless people regularly. But how much do you know about their challenges or the resources available to help? Find out. Volunteer. Serve breakfast. Sit with one person and just listen. The National Alliance to End Homelessness is working hard on the issue.
Begnaud’s podcast and accompanying newsletter, The Do Good Crew, is great reading. Check it out.
