The city’s Westside Emergency Housing Center (WEHC) is home to about 200 seniors and 90 veterans seeking shelter among hundreds more who are experiencing homelessness. While the number who sleep there fluctuates throughout the year, during the winter months officials say it’s not uncommon to reach its capacity of 600.
City officials and advocates for those experiencing homelessness say the numbers reflect a widespread need for more services and housing options for a population that often struggles with behavioral health, mental health, addiction, and other health issues.
The WEHC, located far from the city’s center in a former jail, hosts two EMT-Basic personnel who can provide care during medical incidents before a patient is transported by ambulance to a hospital. Staff are also able to administer drug overdose medications like naloxone, also known as Narcan.
“I’m extremely concerned about the seniors there. I was amazed at how many of the seniors are also veterans,” Albuquerque City Councilor Nichole Rogers, who reported the numbers, said Tuesday.
Rogers said she recently toured the WEHC and talked to residents. She described the conditions as “horrific, disgusting and triggering.”
“It took a couple of days to emotionally process what I saw. We are failing every single person who needs that place,” she said.
Rogers, City Councilor Renée Grout and Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa recently put pressure on members of the Homeless Coordinating Council (HCC) — a collaborative made up of members from the city, county, and the board of regents of the University of New Mexico — challenging them to work on creative solutions to exit shelter residents into housing options and provide comprehensive case management. It was the main topic of discussion at the HCC’s monthly meeting on Tuesday.
“We need more people from this group to be involved,” Rogers said. “This is an emergency for our seniors, in my opinion. We should be treating it as such and pulling all of our resources together.”
Rogers said she’s working with the state on potential funding that could be directed to assist the WEHC’s seniors and veterans, including how to place those with acute medical issues into appropriate facilities.
“How do we get case management up there to make sure they’re getting Medicare? Some of them need skilled nursing care. I was just heartbroken,” Rogers said.
Barboa asked if more seniors and veterans could be assisted by city and county hotel voucher programs.
“I feel like this is an all hands on deck situation,” she said.
Rogers said the temporary nature of hotel vouchers can be a challenge for some at the WEHC. She said she talked to seniors who have been at the site so long they’ve formed communities and are hesitant to leave their friends.
One senior told her she’d lived at the WEHC for two years, while another said she’d lived there for six years.
“This is what broke my heart — they don’t always want to go to a hotel if it’s only going to be available for a week. They’re worried they won’t get back in [to the WEHC] if it’s too full,” Rogers said. “They need permanent solutions.”
$5.9 million renovation; search for new operator
Maria Wolfe, HCC chair and homeless innovations officer for the city, said there are positive developments at the WEHC — noting that on May 6 the City Council voted unanimously to authorize the sale of $22.5 million in gross receipt tax improvement revenue bonds for projects throughout the city, with $4.5 million designated to the WEHC.
She described the funding as a “game changer” for improvements at the facility.
The WEHC’s 12 dorms are expected to undergo about $4.2 million in renovations, with the first to be completed this week, Wolfe said. Interior renovations include new floors, paint and lights, updates to bathrooms, showers and a warming kitchen. In addition, the city was scheduled to host a new bed-building event at the WEHC on Wednesday with volunteers from the nearby Amazon distribution facility.
Exterior improvements that include new walkways and sidewalk ramps, shade structures, pet areas, outdoor furniture, storage for belongings, portable spaces for service providers and paving will cost about $1.7 million. Wolfe said the city expects all the renovations to be completed by the end of the summer.
Meanwhile, the city is searching for an organization to run the facility and for another to spearhead services. Albuquerque Heading Home recently opted not to apply for another three-year contract to operate the WEHC.
“We anticipate that we will go to the City Council for approval of a [new] contract this fall and for additional services to come onboard this fall,” Wolfe said.
She said in the interim, the city will host a job and resource fair May 18 with dozens of service providers at the facility.
“We really do want to see significant changes, both in terms of the facility improvements, but also serious improvements on services provided to the folks there and connecting them to services,” Wolfe said.
The next regular meeting of the HCC is scheduled for June 11.
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