Keller aims to expand homeless, recovery services

Mayor Tim Keller used the occasion of his State of the City address Aug. 17 to highlight a series of initiatives (some new, some in progress) that are designed to improve the lot of those experiencing homelessness — including adding or bolstering four city-run facilities to serve different populations.

The Metro Homelessness Initiative (MHI) is intended to be similar to the city’s Metro Crime Initiative — a systemwide all-hands-on-deck approach to help solve the city’s most daunting problems.

Keller said he’d directed his departments to “… double down on every city effort to get more people into houses and off the streets,” — saying there were 5,000 people living on the streets in Albuquerque, a historically high number that advocates for those experiencing homelessness say is likely an undercount.

The core of the MHI is a rebrand and expansion of the city’s Gateway Center project. The original Gateway Center at Gibson Health Hub was meant to be a one-stop shop for the city’s unhoused, whether to provide shelter beds and wraparound services or more recently to offer medical sobering and medical respite units.

The Gateway — at a price tag of $70 million and counting — got off to a slow start after considerable backlash from neighborhoods and an asbestos problem that slowed the rehabilitation of the former hospital.

“I know it’s had its challenges, but it is back on track, and over the next nine months it will provide immediate help for 1,000 people a day,” Keller said in his address. “It’s going to provide a pathway off the street and out of addiction.”

More than just one

Keller said his administration will integrate four other Gateway facilities in the coming months: Gateway West, Youth Gateway, Family Gateway and the Recovery Gateway.

Gateway West is now the name of the former Westside Emergency Housing Center — the city’s largest overnight shelter with 12 dorms that are undergoing millions in renovations. The city wants to add more wraparound services at the oft-criticized facility and make it more welcoming to the hundreds who call it home.

Family Gateway is the new name of the city’s former Family Housing Navigation Center, which is in a former motel. The city leases the site to provide safe living units for families — mostly mothers and their children. It currently serves about 50 families.

In June, meanwhile, the city announced it had purchased the former San Mateo Inn, at 2424 San Mateo Blvd. near I-40, for young adults ages 18-to-25 who are experiencing homelessness. The $4.8 million site — now called Youth Gateway — will initially house 30 to 40 clients at a time once renovations are complete.

The fifth Gateway facility is the only one without a physical location — Recovery Gateway — which officials said would begin as a “micro-community.”

Health, Housing & Homelessness Director Gilbert Ramírez said Recovery Gateway would provide a place for those who have gone through detox and are working toward long-term sobriety. He said his department has some of the city’s opioid settlement funds to work with in order to move forward on potential designs and operation strategy.

Ramírez said it would be a natural connection to the medical sobering unit at the Gateway Center.

“It’s part of the continuum of care,” he said. “You have folks who need a safe place to sober and connect to immediate services. Hopefully, that connection at Gateway ties you to post detox and sober living support for 18-to-24 months.”

Fall meetings

Part of the MHI also entails the organization of city-hosted meetings in the fall for residents, elected officials, nonprofit representatives and business owners. The idea is to keep different parties abreast of what the city is doing and to solicit new ideas.

“It’s just acknowledging that with an issue as complicated as homelessness, the city can’t solve it alone, the mayor can’t solve it alone,” spokesperson Staci Drangmeister said. “It’s a charge from the mayor — a recommitment to find new ways to work with partners, to bring new solutions to the table.”

The city has already launched a landlord engagement program to help improve its housing voucher utilization. In addition, the start of the “Better Way Forward” program commenced earlier this month to employ those in the Gateway system for jobs with the city’s Duke City Ambassadors.

Keller said the city will continue to add affordable housing to its portfolio, too — saying in his address that 2,200 units have been added since 2018 and another 700 are currently in work — 400 in the Uptown area and 300 in the International District.

The full State of the City address is available here .

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