If you bought marijuana in Aurora in the last year -- legally -- thank you. You’ve helped the homeless.

The city is using pot tax revenue to fund programs to serve people who are homeless along Colfax Avenue.

“It's really seen an evolution of sorts,” said Megan Vizna, whose non-profit is located along the street.

Locals have called Colfax Avenue the Homeless Highway.

“We have lots of motels of really a transient population,” she said.

It’s a sobering reality reinforced by the fact that more than 6,000 people in Aurora and Denver will wander it this year looking for a place to sleep.

“We hope that we can do greater outreach,” said Aurora Neighborhood Programs manager Nancy Sheffield. “It's a very positive steps to using these revenues for a positive outcome for our society.”

Over the next three years, just under a quarter of Aurora's pot tax revenue will end up on the streets helping outreach groups like Vizna's.

“We'll be able to do even more work than we're already doing,” Vizna said. “So more motel outreach, hopefully helping more kids in the Aurora public schools.”

With four full-time workers, CCN is limited, but the $225,000 they're getting from the city will allow them to team up with other non-profits.

Each year it gets around $8 million in marijuana taxes. They’ll be giving $1.5 million of it away.

“It's really going to be ground-breaking for the homeless population of Aurora,” Vizna said. “We're really excited that the city trusts us to do this work.”

All of which means something often referred to as the gateway drug is giving the homeless highway an infusion of hope.

“We are here to provide services, we just need to get there and we can do that now,” she said.

Aurora will also give two vans to non-profits as well as dedicating full-time positions to help the homeless.

Aurora will do a year-end review to see how the city will proceed with the program.



They've committed to funding for the next three years.

(KUSA-TV © 2016 KUSA with The Associated