Mike Coffman left the comfy confines of the Aurora mayor’s office to live the life of a homeless vet and sleeping on his city’s streets for a week after Christmas.
Coffman wanted to get at the root of the problem of homelessness along the Front Range, rather than just take the word of paid advocates lobbying for taxpayer dollars.
His conclusions are not surprising. It’s Coffman’s willingness to be honest about the issue that’s so rare these days.
“These encampments are not a product of an economy under COVID, they’re not a product of rental rates, housing, they’re not. They are a product of a drug culture,” Coffman told CBS4’s Shaun Boyd at the conclusion of his street studies.
Boyd and her camera followed Coffman, a decorated Army and Marine Corps veteran, during his undercover experiment and reported his findings.
Coffman says people aren’t living on the streets due to a lack of shelter.
“It is a lifestyle choice. It is a very dangerous lifestyle choice,” Coffman said.
Essentially what we have sprouting up around parks, businesses, and schools, are open air crack houses.
And the advocates of these drug addicts are acting as their enablers, Coffman reveals.
It’s a fascinating report, watch it here.
Kudos to Coffman for going the extra mile, literally, to help find a solution to this sprawling problem.