On September 24, Mayor Tim Keller addressed the New Mexico chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks (NAIOP). The commercial and real estate development organization is considered the most influential business organization in the city consisting of developers, investors and contractors with membership in excess 300 with many bidding on city contracts. NAIOP has its own political action committee, and the organization endorses candidates for Mayor and City Council while the membership donates to candidates.
Keller started his remarks by describing what he sees on his walk to work from his West Downtown home located in the Albuquerque Country Club area. Keller told the audience this:
“We all know what’s happening now. I see homelessness. I see vagrants. I see broken windows all over our city. … All of the challenges we’re facing, I absolutely feel. I feel them and I see them. … I just want to make it abundantly clear that we are in this together. I don’t know anyone in Albuquerque who doesn’t have the same stories I just shared. … This, by far and away, is our biggest challenge. This is a generational challenge for America; it also is absolutely for Albuquerque. … This is the challenge of our lifetime.”
During his August 17 State of the City Address, Mayor Tim Keller said homelessness and housing are the biggest problems facing the city. Keller said this:
“Of all the challenges we face, this issue is without a doubt the main event. … Despite our best efforts [there are an estimated] 5,000 people living on the streets … We are not going back down… And we are not going to blame anyone else. We are going to do everything we can for those 5,000 people. But I know we can’t fix this alone. … We need help to build a healthy community across the continuum from the panhandler, to the addict, to those facing eviction.”
ALBUQUERQUE UNSHELTERED DATA BREAKDOWN
Mayor Tim Keller has repeatedly said the city has 5,000 homeless but never fully articulating his source for the statistics. The reality is he is embellishing the figures by more than doubling an official count.
On July 31, the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness released the 2024 Point-In-Time (PIT) Report for the numbers of unhoused in Albuquerque and in the balance of the state. The PIT count is the official number of homeless reported by communities to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to receive federal funding and to help understand the extent of homelessness at the city, state, regional and national levels.
The raw data breakdown of Albuquerque’s homeless contained in the 2023 Point In Time Survey is as follows:
HOUSEHOLDS COUNTED IN ALBUQUERQUE
The total count of HOUSEHOLDS experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque on January 29, 2024 was 2,248. (Households include those with or without children or only children.) The breakdown is as follows:
- Emergency Shelters: 1,018
- Transitional Housing: 174
- Unsheltered: 1,056
TOTAL HOUSEHOLDS: 2,248
PERSONS COUNTED IN ALBUQUERQUE
The total count of PERSONS experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque on January 29, 2024 was 2,740 broken down in 3 categories.
- Emergency Shelters: 1,289
- Transitional Housing: 220
- Unsheltered: 1,231
TOTAL PERSONS: 2,740
ALBUQUERQUE’S 2009 TO 2024 STATISTICS
Total number of PEOPLE counted during the Albuquerque Point-in-Time counts from 2009 to 2024 to establish a graphic trend line for the period are as follows:
- 2009: 2,002
- 2011: 1,639
- 2013: 1,171
- 2015: 1,287
- 2017: 1,318
- 2019: 1,524
- 2021: 1,567
- 2022: 1,311
- 2023: 2,394
- 2024: 2,740
The data breakdown for the 2024 Albuquerque UNSHELTERED was reported as follows:
- 960 (78%) were considered chronically homeless.
- 727 (22%) were not considered chronically homeless.
- 106 (8.6%) had served in the military.
- 927 (75.3%) had NOT served in the military.
- 669 (56.6%) were experiencing homelessness for the first time.
- 525 (42.6%) were NOT experiencing homelessness for the first time.
- 5% of all respondents said they were homeless due to domestic violence with 49.2% of those being women.
- 4% said they were adults with a serious mental illness.
- 0% said they were adults with a substance abuse disorder.
- 8% said they were adults with another disabling condition.
- 3% were asdults with HIV/AIDS.
Individuals who stated they moved to New Mexico from somewhere else were asked whether or not they were experiencing homelessness when they moved to the State and they responded as follows:
- 82 (24.8%) said they were homeless before moving to the state.
- 212 (63.8%) said they were not homeless before moving to the state.
- 77 (11.4%) refused to answer.
HISTORY OF ALBUQUERQUE’S EMERGENCY SHELTER COUNT
The 2024 PIT report contains the count of the number of people residing in EMERGENCY SHELTER in Albuquerque during the PIT Counts for the years 2011-2024. Following are those numbers:
- 2011: 658
- 2012: 621
- 2013: 619
- 2014: 614
- 2015: 659
- 2016: 674
- 2017: 706
- 2018: 711
- 2019: 735
- 2020: 808
- 2021: 940
- 2022: 940
- 2023: 1,125
- 2024: 1,289
BARRIERS TO HOUSING LISTED
Unhoused respondents were asked to list the barriers they are currently experiencing that are preventing them from obtaining housing. Following are the responses:
- Access to services: 439 responses, 42%
- Access to communication: 263 responses, 25%
- Available housing is in unsafe neighborhoods: 119 responses, 11%
- Credit issues: 150 responses, 14%
- Criminal record: 220 responses, 21%
- Deposit/Application fees: 316 responses, 30%
- Lack of vouchers (rental subsidies): 333 responses,32%
- Missing documentation: 374 responses, 35%
- No housing for large households: 33 responses, 3%
- Pet deposits/Pet Rent: 57 responses, 5%
- Pets not allowed/Breed Restrictions: 48 responses, 5%
- Rental history: 144 responses, 14%
- Rental prices: 340 responses, 32%
- Safety/Security: 77 responses, 7%
- Substance Use Disorder: 283 responses, 27%
- Lack of employment: 45 responses, 4%
- Disabled: 34 responses, 3%
- No mailing address: 31 responses, 3%
- Lack of income: 30 responses, 3%
- Homeless by choice: 30 responses, 3%
- Ineffective service landscape: 25 responses, 2%
- Lack of transportation: 14 responses, 1%
- Discrimination: 8 responses, 1%
The link to review the entire 62-page 2024 PIT report is here:
https://www.nmceh.org/_files/ugd/ad7ad8_4e2a2906787e4ca19853b9c7945a4dc9
KELLER’S MULTIFACETED APPROACH
Mayor Keller has emphasized that the city is taking a multifaceted, all-in approach to get more people into houses and off the streets. Keller announced the Metro Homelessness Initiative which has the goal to provide the unhoused staying at shelters with the opportunity of employment. According to Keller, the city is overhauling its voucher program and improving collaboration with the nonprofits that do the work.
The city will have a total of 5 centers to deal with the homeless that is intended to be operated as an integrated system:
- The Gibson Gateway Shelter
- The Gateway West Shelter
- The Family Gateway Shelter
- The Youth Homeless Shelter
- The Recovery Shelter
Keller said the Gateway Center which is the former Lovelace Hospital on Gibson is the largest investment the city has ever made in health and homelessness with the goal of providing immediate help and a pathway into housing. The Gateway West shelter is the old westside jail being reshaped with no barriers to entry and wraparound services. The city is now adding the Youth Gateway a Recovery Gateway, and the Family Gateway has already helped get 1,200 into permanent housing. The Recovery Gateway is for the unhoused who are struggling with drug abuse. The Family Gateway is a reworked hotel to house more than 50 families a night.
Samantha Sengel, the chief administrative officer for the city, said that between Gateway Center and Gateway West, also known as the Westside Shelter, 900 people are able to find shelter each night. The two other gateways in the works for youth and a recovery are also part of a full system of support. Sengel said this:
“We know that we need to create a full system of support. All of what we are doing needs to be a part of that gateway system. … We also will be opening our medical respite center this calendar year. We will be opening a sobering center this year which is a really critical part of the system that we know are some gaps that we have in our community.”
Links to quoted news sources are here:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/keller-talks-housing-other-challenges-030100317.html
https://www.koat.com/article/metro-homelessness-initiative-is-the-latest-effort-by-the-city/61968575
WESTSIDE JAIL REBRANDED AS NEW “GATEWAY WEST”
On August 9, it was reported that the Westside Emergency Housing has newly renovated sleeping areas. During summer months, upwards of 450 people stay at the shelter on an average night. The old jail pods are being renovated on a rotating basis to allow continuous housing of people while the facility is renovated. The facility has been renamed the “Gateway West.”
The former jail located west of the city off of the old Route 66 was ill-equipped to serve as a full-time shelter. The shelter was opened year-round in 2018. Over the past several years it has undergone various improvements. Those improvements include replacing a septic system with sewer to better serve a large population, adding a warming kitchen with a walk-in fridge and freezer to make sure three meals a day are available to people staying at the low-barrier shelter and working air conditioning.
The city is renovating the sleeping areas room by room, putting in new floors and replacing the 3 bunk high beds with a more typical option for shelters: single beds across the center of the floor and “two bunk” beds along the walls. The beds have new mattresses designed to be bedbug proof and easily cleaned.
The third pod renovation has been completed and the city plans to complete 4 more by winter so that 7 renovated pods will be available before the shelter population rises during the colder months. There are 12 pods that will be renovated. Seven of the dorms are for men, four are for women and one is for couples.
The building has five outdoor shade canopies, but more shaded areas could be added and the city wants to add a pet relief area, platforms for service providers to do fairs outdoors and make upgrades to the property to make it more accessible.
The Gateway West shelter started as an emergency winter night shelter. During the summer, upwards of 100 people who use walkers or wheelchairs stay there on a typical day. Those people often stay at the shelter the whole day, because it is difficult for them to spend the day on the streets.
The city has requested $2 million in federal dollars to meet American Disability Administration requirements by making sure showers, shower bars and seats can be modernized and to pave the outdoor paths to make them nice for wheelchair and walker use.
According to Gilbert Ramirez, the Director of Health, Housing and Homelessness, the facility needed $8.9 million in repairs in January, 2023. Bernalillo County contributed $600,000, which helped purchase the new beds and mattresses, while the City Council authorized $4.5 million, which will be enough to complete the interior renovations on all 12 pods. The city works with multiple nonprofits, which provide many of the services to help homeless people in Albuquerque.
Mayor Keller said this of the newly named Gateway West”:
“Over the last several years, we have been transforming this [former jail] into what it should have been all along, which is essentially a support center with services available for folks with no barriers to entry. … And so that’s why today we’re re-christening this the Gateway West, which, of course, it is our vision to have gateway centers throughout the city. … We want to encourage anyone in Albuquerque who wants to help out — help out a provider, one of these nonprofits that does this work each and every day,” Keller said. “It’s much more effective than just trying to do it yourself.”
The link to the quoted and relied upon news source is here:
GIBSON GATEWAY HOMELESS SHELTER
It was on April 6, 2021, that Mayor Tim Keller officially announced the city had bought the massive 572,000 square-foot hospital complex for $15 million in order to convert it into a 24-7 homeless shelter to assist an estimated 1,000 homeless residents and connect them to other services intended to help secure permanent housing. The original hospital complex had a 201-patient bed capacity and includes large lobby common areas, administrative offices and physician offices, treatment rooms, emergency admittance areas and operating areas and a large 350 capacity auditorium. Once remodeling is completed, the shelter is intended to serve all populations of men, women, and families. Further, the city wants to provide a place anyone could go regardless of gender, religious affiliation, sobriety, addictions, psychotic condition or other factors.
Mayor Keller has always touted the Gateway Center as his top solution to homelessness, but construction issues have caused significant delays. Since the April 6, 2021 purchase of the Gibson Medical Center for conversion to the Gateway homeless shelter, completion of the project has experienced delay, after delay after delay. The repeated delays have been caused by neighborhood protests, a civil lawsuit and zoning battle and asbestos being discovered on the property requiring millions in remediation costs and the city being find by the federal environmental health department.
The original Gateway Center as envisioned will provide navigational services for women and men. The Westside Shelter, now Gateway West, will still provide 600 beds for whoever needs them. The first phases of the Gateway Center, including 50 beds for women has been completed. Construction costs for “phase one” was $7 million.
By this time next year, city leaders expect their entire Gateway system will be able to help up to 1,500 people a night, but that is contingent on remodeling projects meeting deadlines. City officials are saying the original Gateway Center, which has been under construction for almost three years, will be fully up and running by mid-2025. According to city officials, there already more than 300 people utilizing the Gateway Center right now, and a new sobering center is expected to open, along with a navigation center for men in the winter.
There have been major delays in openings over the years, and with an estimated $70 million price tag, split between the city, state and feds, it’s likely even more delays will occur. Notwithstanding Mayor Keller and his administration leaders are asking the community to think about the big picture. CAO Sengel said this:
“We really need the community to believe in this model and get behind us in the sense that this is the place that we are investing to ensure that people have the support they need to move them from unhoused and living on the street through support services, and moving them towards the opportunity to be housed.”
CITY MOVES FORWARD WITH YOUTH HOMELESS SHELTER
Notwithstanding the Gateway Center on Gibson and the Gateway West Center, Mayor Tim Keller says that the city needs even more resources to address homelessness and he has announced a Gateway Center expansion plan. The big idea behind the city’s Gateway Center expansion plan includes a network of 5 different facilities providing specific resources for specific groups.
Chief Administrative Officer Samatha Sengel said this:
“This is a system of support, and we recognize that when you have individuals that are sleeping in a shelter, the most important thing we can do is ensure that they have access to support services. … Supporting individuals with true case management and walking along with them where they are and bringing them to housing. That model has been proven out in not only in Albuquerque and other places.”
Keller announced that work is already underway to convert the old San Mateo Inn near I-40 into the city’s first major Gateway Center expansion. The city purchased the building for nearly $5 million with plans to convert it into the city’s first Youth Homeless Facility. A recent report found a significant group of 15 to 25 year olds experiencing homelessness never utilize the city’s existing resources.
Dr. Samantha Sengel, the city’s chief administration officer, put it this way:
“We have very focused programs for men and women and family. But I think that recognizing that 20 year olds, 21 year olds, need a very different environment is exactly what we’re focused on. … They’re at a stage in their life that they need different types of support, and if we have a dedicated location for them, we can ensure that they have appropriate supports. We’re right in the phase right now of determining the level of the renovation that’s going to require. So we’re all aiming for 2025.”
Gilbert Ramirez, director of the city’s Health, Housing, and Homelessness Department said this:
“A lot of our young adults do not access adult-based services, because they don’t consider themselves necessarily to be adults, even though they’re 18, 19.”
City leaders say the new Youth Gateway Center is expected to house between 30 and 50 young adults at a time. While the new Youth Gateway Center houses young adults, and another converted hotel offers services for families experiencing homelessness. There’s also plans for a recovery gateway, a micro-community dedicated to people suffering from addiction.
City leaders say more announcements about the Gateway Center are coming this fall.
City of Albuquerque moves forward with plans for youth homeless shelter – KOB.com
CITY’S FINANCIAL COMMITMENT TO THE UNHOUSED
Originally, it was the city’s Family Community Services Department (FCS) Department that provided assistance to the homeless. In fiscal year 2021-2022, the department spent $35,145,851 on homeless initiatives. In 2022-2023 fiscal year the department spent $59,498,915 on homeless initiatives. On June 23, 2022 Mayor Tim Keller announced that the city was adding $48 million to the FY23 budget to address housing and homelessness issues in Albuquerque. Key appropriations included in the $48 million were as follows:
- $20.7 million for affordable and supportive housing
- $1.5 million for improvements to the Westside Emergency Housing Center
- $4 million to expand the Wellness Hotel Program
- $7 million for a youth shelter
- $6.8 million for medical respite and sobering centers
- $7 million for Gateway Phases I and II, and improvements to the Gibson Gateway Shelter facility
- $555,000 for services including mental health and food insecurity prevention
The link to the quoted source is here:
Effective July 1, 2024, the Family and Community Services Department was split to create two departments: Health, Housing and Homelessness (HHH) and the Youth and Family Services (YFS). The Health, Housing and Homelessness Department (HHH) provides a range of services to the unhoused. The services offered by the department directly or by contract with community providers include:
- Behavioral health services, which encompass mental health and substance abuse treatment and prevention.
- Homeless services.
- Domestic violence support.
- Health care.
- Gang/violence intervention and prevention.
- Public health services.
- Rental assistance and affordable housing developments.
HHH also operates four Health and Social Service Centers and the HHH department employs upwards of 100 full time employees.
The enacted FY/25 General Fund budget for the HHH Department is $52.2 million, which includes $48 million for strategic support, health and human services, affordable housing, mental health services, emergency shelter, homeless support services, Gibson Health HUB operating, and substance use services from Family and Community Services Department, and $4.2 million for a move of Gibson Health HUB maintenance division form General Service Department.
The HHH departments FY/25 budget which began on July 1, 20224 includes:
- $13.3 million of FY/24 one-time funding transferred from Family and Community Services, including $265 thousand for strategic support,
- $110 thousand for health and human services,
- $8.5 million for affordable housing,
- $1.5 million for mental health services,
- $1.2 million for emergency shelter,
- $200 thousand for substance use services,
- $1 million for homeless support services and $500 thousand for the Gateway Phase 1 and Engagement Center at Gibson Health Hub.
The FY/25 HHH Department budget increases recurring funding of $250 thousand for Family Housing Navigation Center/Shelter (Wellness-2), and recurring funding of $250 thousand for Gibson Health HUB maintenance. The proposed budget adjusts program appropriations of $776 thousand in FY/25 based on projected savings.
The Gateway Homeless shelter on Gibson, the city’s one-stop shop for shelter, housing and employment services, has been appropriated $10.7 million in total funding fiscal year 2025.
The Westside Emergency Housing Center was appropriated $1.5 million.
The proposed budget includes $8 million in one-time funding for supportive housing and voucher programs, plus $100,000 for emergency housing vouchers for victims of domestic violence.
Other major budget highlights for the homelessness, housing and behavioral health include the following:
- $900,000 nonrecurring to fully fund the Assisted Outpatient Treatment program.
- $730,000 in recurring funding for operation of the Medical Sobering Center at the Gateway Shelter.
- $100,000 nonrecurring for emergency housing vouchers for victims of domestic violence.
- “Full funding”for service contracts for mental health, substance abuse, early intervention and prevention programs, domestic violence shelters and services, sexual assault services, health and social service providers, and services to abused, neglected, and abandoned youth.
- $1.5 million in recurring funding for the Medical Respite facility at the Gateway Center.
- $100,000 nonrecurring for the development of a technology system that enables the city and providers to coordinate on the provision of social services to people experiencing homelessness and behavioral health challenges.
- $500,000 nonrecurring to fund Albuquerque Street Connect. According to the mayor’s office, Street Connect is a “proven program” that focuses on establishing ongoing relationships with people experiencing homelessness to help them into supportive housing.
You can review all city hall department budgets at this link:
Click to access fy24-proposed-web-version.pdf
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
Since becoming Mayor in 2017, Mayor Tim Keller has made the homeless the top priority perhaps only second to public safety. During the past 7 years of his tenure , the city has established two 24/7 homeless shelters, including purchasing the Loveless Gibson Medical Center for $15 million to convert it into a homeless shelter and has spent upwards of $80 million to renovate it. The city is funding and operating 2 major shelters for the homeless, one fully operational with 450 beds and one when once remodeling is completed fully operational will assist upwards 1,000 homeless and accommodate at least 330 a night. Ultimately, both shelters are big enough to be remodeled and provide far more sheltered housing for the unhoused.
According to the City budgets for the years 2021 to 2024, the Keller administration has spent upwards of $200,000,000 or approximately $50 Million a year to provide shelter and services to the unhoused.
Keller has taken an “all the above approach” to deal with the city’s homeless. The city will have a total of 5 centers to deal with the homeless that should be operating as an integrated system by the end of next year:
- The Gibson Gateway shelter
- The Gateway West shelter
- The Family Gateway shelter
- The Youth Homeless shelter
- The Recovery Shelter
Notwithstanding all the efforts, the city’s financing and programs initiated by Mayor Keller, he insists that the city has 5,000 homeless. Every year that the Point In Time survey is released, the city and service providers always proclaim it is a massive undercount of the city and state’s homeless population. The accuracy of the numbers are called into question with some arguing that the city’s homeless numbers are as high as10,000 or more as demands are made for more and more spending.
Government and charitable providers who rely on government funding to assist the homeless to an extent are motivated to make claims that the numbers they serve are much greater than they really are because government funding or even donations are dependent on the numbers they actually serve. This is especially so when federal funding is at stake.
KELLER’S EMBELISHMENT OF THE NUMBERS
The Point in Time (PIT) survey is criticized because everyone at risk of or experiencing homelessness through the course of the entire year is not included. The PIT report does not include those who are referred to as the “hidden homeless” which is defined as people who may be sleeping in their cars, overcrowded homes, vacant buildings or staying “on and off” with friends or relatives for short periods of time or in other unsafe housing conditions or in undetected campsites and those who have no permanent address.
Mayor Tim Keller’s embellishment that the city has upwards of 5,000 is not supported by the Point In Time survey. The overall numbers found each year by the PIT over the last 12 years has been very consistent. Albuquerque’s total number of chronic homeless is between 2,002 counted in 2009 and 2,740 counted in 2024.
Until government and all homeless providers come up with an ongoing method of calculating the homeless throughout the year, the annual Point In Time is the only count that is reliable and should not be dismissed as inaccurate. The blunt reality is that homelessness will never be solved until the underlying causes are resolved including poverty and the mental health and drug addiction crisis.
Given the numbers in the 2023 PIT report and the millions being spent on the homeless crisis it should be manageable. Yet the crisis is only seems to get worse and worse each year and it is a continuing major drain on city resources. During the past few years the unhoused have become far more dispersed throughout the city and have become far more aggressive in camping where they want and for how long as they want.
The problem the city and Mayor Keller have failed to solve is the homeless squatters who have no interest in any offers of shelter, beds, motel vouchers from the city or alternatives to living on the street and who want to camp at city parks, on city streets in alleys and trespass in open space. Until that problem is solved, the public perception will be is that very little to no progress has been made despite millions spent to deal with what Keller describes as the “challenge of our lifetime.”