Mayor Mike Coffman has been granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit he filed against his own city over campaign finance rules that he said violated his right to free speech.
“My senior year of high school, I found myself homeless, unhoused. I lived on the streets for an entire year. That just kind of gave me a heart and a passion for identifying, associating and connecting with people who find themselves in that predicament,” said Gilbert, whose family moved from Guyana to the U.S. Virgin Islands when he was young. After his stint on the streets, Gilbert served in the U.S. Air Force and later got an undergraduate degree in computer science. But being a pastor was his calling, and he established Restoration Christian Fellowship in Aurora just before the start of the millennium.
Mayor Mike Coffman, who spent a week living in homeless encampments and local shelters at the end of 2020, will propose a camping ban for Aurora. I will be introducing an ordinance prohibiting camping in the City of Aurora on Thursday, Coffman tweeted on Monday, May 17. The proposal is already drafted but I want to work with our City Attorney s office to make sure that the proposed camping ban is compliant with the CDC guidelines that were put in place at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and are still in effect. I also want to make sure that the proposed camping ban meets the conditions spelled out in court decisions where camping bans have been challenged and were upheld.
“The Aurora City Attorney’s Office is still reviewing the lawsuit, so it would be improper for us to comment on it at this time. However, the CAO defends any policy or law that is supported by the city council as a body, says Ryan Luby, a spokesperson for the city.
Coffman s suit claims that the ordinance s prohibition on a political candidate campaigning for other candidates or ballot initiatives is unconstitutional. It also argues that the ordinance prohibiting coordination among election campaign committees is unconstitutional; under the current rule, for example, two campaigns are not allowed to share the same consultant, the lawsuit asserts. It also takes issue with expanded disclaimer requirements for electioneering communications and independent expenditures, aspects of the ordinance that he says are unconstitutional.
With an emergency winter shelter set to wrap up operations in April, the City of Aurora is looking at establishing new safe-camping and -parking sites for people experiencing homelessness fast. It’s about creating options, and that’s what we’re focused on, says Jessica Prosser, Aurora s director of Housing and Community Services. Building a brand-new shelter has a long lead time and is very expensive, and these safe outdoor spaces create an option that’s a little more nimble in the future to keep people safe and healthy.
As the COVID pandemic lingers and some homeless people either can t or choose not to use shelters, safe- camping and -parking sites are becoming more common throughout Colorado. Denver has had two safe-camping sites since December and a third is on the way. Aurora already has one, too: In January, the city set up a safe-camping site right next to the 100-bed emergency shelter that was established last fall in an industrial area in the northwest part o