City data shows NAV campus handles most shelter volume; older adults are a growing share

City staff presented quarter‑one performance data for grantees funded by Aurora’s homelessness allocations and said the bulk of service volume is concentrated at the Aurora Regional Navigation Campus (ARNC).

Nikki Rising, the city’s homeless programs data analyst, said the NAV campus day center had roughly 1,722 visits in Q1, and tier 1 had about 1,436 client touches; overall, NAV‑operated programs outsized other grantees in Q1. Rising highlighted that the NAV campus has a notably high percentage of clients aged 55 and older. "The older adult subpopulation is the fastest growing group experiencing homelessness nationwide," she said, and reported that tier 3 and other NAV components include a larger share of clients 55+ (in some program slices ~25%).

Rising reviewed performance measures the city uses to evaluate grantees: an occupancy goal of 90%, an exits‑to‑permanent‑housing target of 35%, and an average length‑of‑stay goal under 180 days. In Q1, tier 1 commonly exceeded the occupancy metric (sometimes >100% seasonally), while tier 2 and some grantees trailed the 90% occupancy target — staff attributed underperformance in part to building maintenance issues and leadership transitions. Three Birds Alliance and tier 3 exceeded the 35% exits metric in Q1; tier 1 had low exit rates (about 1%), which staff said is typical for night‑by‑night shelters.

On rapid rehousing, Rising said the Aurora Housing Authority averaged 20 days to move households to housing (goal <30 days); the program had not yet recorded exits because clients remain within program timeframes. Housing prevention funding had delays: the housing authority enrolled no clients in Q1 due to staffing shortages but began receiving referrals in May and was reminded that 50% of its grant budget must be spent by the end of the second quarter.

Rising also reported a decrease in recorded incidents during Q1 and told the committee that roughly 95% of conflicts were resolved without police intervention. She noted that grantees are now using the Metro Denver coordinated entry system called One Home and that training for Advanced Pathways staff occurred in April.

What happens next: Staff will continue to monitor occupancy, exits and length of stay; they plan follow‑up with grantees to address underperformance and staffing shortfalls and will provide quarterly progress updates as requested in the ARNC resolution discussion.