On Sunday, November 17 the Albuquerque Journal published two very different guest columns that offer two distinct observations on how the Mayor Tim Keller Administration is dealing with the city’s homeless crisis. One deals with the astonishing amount of city financing spent on the homeless without making a dent in the root causes of the problem. The second deals with the immediate shelter being offered to the homeless for winter support. Following are the guest columns:
HEADLINE: “City’s Shelter Investment Leaves Root Causes Of Homeless Unaddressed” BY PETE DINELLI, Albuquerque resident and a former Chief Public safety Officer, former Chief Deputy District Attorney and former Albuquerque City Councilor
“Mayor Tim Keller addressed NAIOP, the city’s most influential business organization consisting of developers, investors and contractors. 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.”
Mayor Keller proclaims the city has 5,000 homeless. Keller almost doubles the figure submitted to the federal government for funding in the annual Point In Time survey. The total count of PERSONS determined experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque on January 29, 2024 is 2,740 reported in 3 categories:
- Emergency Shelters: 1,289
- Transitional Housing: 220
- Unsheltered: 1,231
Every time the PIT is released, the city and service providers always proclaim it is a massive undercount of the homeless population. Some argue that the city’s homeless numbers are as high as 9,000 to support demands for more and more funding. Government and charitable homeless providers are motivated to make claims that the numbers are much greater when federal funding is at stake.
Keller has announced a total of 5 facilities 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
The two biggest shelters are the Gibson Gateway and the Gateway West. The Loveless Gibson Medical Center was purchased for $15 million, and the city has spent upwards of $90 million to renovate it. Gateway West provides 450 beds and Gibson Gateway when remodeling is completed is intended to assist upwards of 1,000 homeless and accommodate at least 330 nightly.
According to the City budgets for the years 2021 to 2024, the Keller administration has spent a staggering $200,000,000, or upwards of $60 Million a year, to operate shelters and provide homeless services. Mayor Keller is throwing millions at temporary shelter as he fails to make a dent on the underlying causes of crime, mental health and drug addiction.
Given the numbers in the 2024 PIT report and the millions being spent on the homeless crisis it should be manageable. Yet the crisis only gets 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 thanks to Keller. The unhoused are more aggressive, camping where they want and for how long as they want.
Unhoused who have no interest in any offers of shelter, beds, motel vouchers or alternatives to living on the street force the city to make it totally inconvenient for them to “squat” anywhere they want and must force them to move on. After repeated attempts to reason with them to move on, citations and arrests are in order. Until the problem is solved, the public perception will be that very little to no progress has been made despite millions spent to deal with what Keller proclaims as the “challenge of our lifetime.”
The link to the Albuquerque Journal guest column with photos is here:
https://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/article_e4249ce2-959b-11ef-a986-c3f651f4e406.html
EDITORS NOTE: The above Dinelli guest column published is a highly condensed version of the Dinelli blog article entitled “Mayor Tim Keller Creates 5 Separate Gateway Shelters To Deal With “Challenge Of Our Lifetime”; City’s $200 Million Financial Commitment To Unhoused; Keller Embellishes By Doubling Unhoused Numbers As He Fails To Deal With Those Who Refuse Services And Getting Them Off Streets” which was published on October 11, 2024 with the link to that article provided in the POSTSCRIPT below.
HEADLINE “Winter Sheltering Plan Officers Homeless Immediate Support” BY Gilbert Ramirez, Director of the City of the city’s Health, Housing and Homelessness Department and Jodie Esquibel, Director of the city’s Albuquerque Community Safety Department
“Colder weather is settling into the Metro, and the city of Albuquerque is ready with our revitalized Winter Sheltering Plan.
Winter is an extremely challenging time for our unsheltered community, and we want the most vulnerable in our city to know that there are resources and support available.
The goal of our Winter Sheltering Plan is to assist as many people as possible. It’s important to remember that shelter, like any resource, is a choice, and people have the right to refuse. Even so, first responders from Albuquerque Community Safety will continue to offer shelter beds and other resources to all unsheltered residents because one day, like we’ve seen many times before, their answer could be “yes.”
Beds are available. This year, we launched the Shelter Connect Dashboard to track available shelter beds throughout the city. The dashboard is available to the public and is a tool for us to help get folks indoors. ACS will once again operate its emergency, after-hours transportation service to shelters between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. Community members can call (505) 418-6178 to request transportation.
This year, ACS can transport individuals to the new First Responder Receiving area at the Gateway Center during the overnight hours, getting people inside, warm and safe.
The city’s Department of Health, Housing and Homelessness will activate winter sheltering protocols when outdoor temperatures are freezing, which can put individuals at risk of cold-related injuries such as frostbite and hypothermia. An emergency alert on the city’s website will signal that plan is in effect.
Once the alert is activated, the first step is to expand Gateway West’s capacity by 30 beds. Gateway West is the city’s largest shelter and is undergoing dramatic upgrades. To date, six dorms have been renovated with new flooring, more comfortable beds with secure under-bed storage, and updated bathrooms.
Step two is activating additional emergency sheltering at the First Responder Receiving area at Gateway Center. The Receiving Area opened in June and has already been successful in providing shelter and connection to resources. As of Nov. 1, the First Responder Receiving area has served 234 individuals. This space will help provide shelter and address immediate needs.
If needed, additional sheltering can be added at again at Gateway West, as well as multi-generational and community centers, to get folk off the streets.
In August, Mayor Tim Keller introduced the city’s Metro Homelessness Initiative, an all-in, multi-faceted approach to addressing the challenges of homelessness, acknowledging that no one entity can take it all on by themselves. Throughout the winter, we will work closely with our community partners, including day shelters, to help meet the need of those experiencing homelessness.
On the coldest days of the year, we are “all hands on deck” when it comes to helping our unhoused community. Our Winter Sheltering Plan leverages every resource, big and small, to make the most significant impact possible, at a time when it is needed most.”
The link to the Albuquerque Journal guest column with photos is here:
https://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/article_63b00138-a210-11ef-ac23-bbc37511099d.html
POSTSCRIPT
Below are links to three related articles providing a detailed elaboration on the City’s Gateway Shelters, the proposed changes to its “Homeless Encampment Removal” policy and the City’s “Shelter Connect Dashboard”: