The clock is ticking on a required city report to address the metro’s inventory of blighted motels and its hotel voucher program — one that’s meant to assist citizens in urgent need of a free room for a night or a short stay, including those experiencing homelessness.
Frustrations with unsafe and unhealthy motels and the coordination of the city’s voucher program were made public earlier this year by Albuquerque City Councilors Renée Grout and Nichole Rogers. Both are concerned that problem properties, where vouchers are often used, move people from one precarious situation into another and that locating a room is unnecessarily complicated.
The two successfully drove the unanimous passage of an ordinance through the City Council in February that directed an 11-member panel to come up with solutions by summer.
Read more about the ordinance here.
“It’s been made clear that we don’t really have a [voucher] program; we have funding we give to local nonprofits and then leave it up to them to go out and establish relationships with hoteliers,” Rogers told City Desk ABQ on May 24.
Vouchers are considered a critical bridge to more stable housing for individuals and families in certain situations, including homelessness, eviction or the aftermath of a natural disaster like a fire. They are also used to give refuge to victims of domestic violence.
While Mayor Tim Keller hasn’t signed off on the fiscal year 2025 budget recently passed by the City Council, the Health, Housing & Homelessness (HHH) Department, which administers the vouchers, said it expects the program will receive about $350,000 in funds.
‘It was maddening’
Rogers said a central theme that has arisen from the panel’s twice-weekly meetings is the need for a central point of contact for voucher distribution. She said under the current system, multiple HHH providers like the Barrett House, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities and Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless receive vouchers but without a clear plan.
“We have multiple organizations that all run things differently,” Rogers said. “It makes no sense when we’re trying to service our clients.”
She said what typically happens is members of Albuquerque Community Safety (ACS) identify someone in need of a voucher, but then has to call the HHH list of providers and hope someone will pick up the phone. Rogers said the providers’ offices are often closed after 5 p.m. and aren’t open on the weekends.
“Working with ACS to find those vouchers, it was maddening,” Rogers said. “They are the boots on the ground, why do they have to call all the [HHH providers]?”
Rogers said she and the panel have discussed giving ACS more direct control of voucher distribution.
Taking on blight
The panel includes representatives of the motel industry and staff from the city’s Abandoned and Dilapidated Abatement Property Team (ADAPT) — part of the fire marshal’s office. Grout and Rogers wanted the two groups to come together to address the health and safety risks at blighted properties. Proposed reforms include increasing code and ordinance enforcement and better marketing of city programs designed to assist hoteliers having such issues.
“I’m hoping we can get to a place where the city is negotiating blocks of rooms with hotels and we come up with a way where we can see what stock of rooms are available to better coordinate,” Rogers said. “I’d like to see the city take the lead and use technology to create a coordinated system so we know how many beds are available — whether shelter beds or hotel beds. We don’t have that system.”
Grout said many of the problem motels are located in the east Central Avenue corridor (which is in her district) and also in areas of west Central Avenue.
“It’s difficult for some agencies to find safe and clean motels that take vouchers,” Grout said when crafting the ordinance.
Further, Grout and Rogers said the panel is looking at possible updates to the city’s 20-year-old overnight lodging ordinance, which the voucher program falls under.
“We’ve been reimagining what this can look like. We’re on track — brainstorming and reimagining,” Rogers said.
Nonprofit journalism like this depends on readers like you. This story is supported by City Desk ABQ, a nonprofit newsroom project of Citizen Media Group supporting news and politics coverage that inspires readers to participate in local democracy. Become a supporter to keep City Desk free and support nonprofit, independent journalists covering politics and policy f0r New Mexico newsrooms.