In the winter of 2021, Mike Coffman dressed as a homeless veteran and spent seven days and nights living on the streets of Aurora, Colorado. Coffman is a U.S. Army veteran, a Marine, a former state treasurer, a former secretary of state, a former representative to Congress, and the current mayor of Aurora. His week as “Homeless Mike” was a way for him to learn about homelessness among the people he serves.
That week, he slept in shelters and encampments, covered with a tarp as temperatures dipped into the teens. “It wasn’t fun. It was really hard … but incredibly impactful,” he told CBS4 News. “I never want to do it again.”
Founding the shelter he now sleeps in once a week
His experience on the street led the mayor to help found the non-profit Advanced Pathways. The incentive-based program includes a 600-person transitional housing facility set up in a former Crowne Plaza hotel, now known as Aurora Regional Navigation Campus (ARNC). When the facililty opened in November of 2025, the idea was that people could advance through a structured program in three tiers. The first tier is a basic-needs shelter for people just off the streets. Tier II offers semi-private rooms for those utilizing addiction recovery programs, mental health services, and job training. Tier III provides individual rooms as transitional housing for those holding down full-time jobs. The goal is to help people achieve the highest level of self-sufficiency they are capable of reaching.
The ARNC rollout was rocky, however, with sewage and plumbing issues and complaints about the facility not being ready. The organizers acknowledged the issues and have worked to get the facility to where they want it to be. And 71-year-old Mayor Coffman has put his body where his mouth is again, quietly sleeping in the Tier 1 shelter every Friday night and serving breakfast every Saturday morning since February.
Getting a first-hand picture of the complex challenges of homelessness
Coffman wrote on Facebook about how staying at the shelter has affected him:
“Every Friday afternoon, I leave my office for the ARNC where I meet with the men and women who are staying in Tier I. I stay overnight in the men’s’ congregate shelter sleeping on a cot. In the morning, I help set up and serve breakfast to everyone in Tier I.
“The experience has enabled me to better understand their unique and complex challenges and it has helped me to see them with compassion, as individuals, and not through a lens of condescension or contempt.
“Consistency is important so that they know that I will be there every Friday and as I’ve become more familiar to them, they have become more relaxed and open about talking to me about their challenges and expectations for their future.”
Coffman explained that the goal is to get those folks to Tier II, and eventually to Tier III. As of now, Tier III won’t be available until the fall due to scheduled maintenance requirements.
“I will continue to stay with those experiencing homelessness, every Friday night, until the program is everything that I believe that it can be and it is a model, not just for Colorado, but for the country,” Coffman wrote.
Earning respect from people of all political persuasions
The photo of Coffman in his Facebook post was taken just before lights out at 10:00pm and sent to him by someone from the shelter. (Coffman shared that he hands out his business cards to those in Tier I so they can contact him if they need something during the week.) He’d brought ear protection because of construction noise, but they were uncomfortable to sleep in. He just adjusted to the noise.
People in the comments, even those who don’t share all of Coffman’s political views, praised the mayor for walking the talk:
“I have disagreed with you a lot of the years. And I imagine we would disagree on plenty today. But Mayor Coffman, I have a new level of appreciation and admiration for you.
When we take the time to see the world from another persons vantage point, there is always something valuable to learn and take into the next human interaction.
Well done.”
“I think anyone actively working to understand others is moving along the right path.
You can pretend to care, but you can’t pretend to show up.”
“I’ll disagree with your politics all day long, but have no problem admiring your tendency to be a decent man.”
“I cannot even begin to tell you what this means to me… A TRUE LEADER… I stay out of politics most of the time, but this kind of engagement is what is needed on many levels. Until somebody truly understands what it’s like to walk through the beginning phases of Recovery, it truly is hard to navigate how to help…
THANK YOU.”
Solving a complex problem like homelessness requires understanding, and seeing a politician show up to learn about it first-hand, not just pay it lip service, certainly hits differently.
