Albuquerque’s new medical respite center is giving unhoused people a safe, supportive place to heal after hospital stays — and a better shot at stable housing.
Mayor Tim Keller joined staff and a patient June 18 for a small-group conversation highlighting the early impact of the Gateway Medical Respite Center.
Tucked inside the former Lovelace Hospital, the 50-bed facility offers 24/7 medical care, housing help and support services for people recovering from illness or surgery while experiencing homelessness. It’s part of a broader push to rethink how Albuquerque responds to homelessness. City leaders hope the center becomes a model for other communities.
One of the first patients to stay at the Medical Respite Center, a man named James, shared how the program changed his life. After developing a serious ankle infection, he didn’t know how he’d recover while living in a rundown trailer. Now, resting in a private room at the new facility, James said the care and support he’s received have been “more than I deserve.”
“I couldn’t ask for more,” he said. “It’s a great place for me to recover. I have all the help I need to recover. And it’s a wonderful place, clean and safe and I couldn’t ask for more.”
The Bigger Vision
James’ story is just one example of why the Gateway Medical Respite Center is important to the city. More than a shelter, the facility fills a critical gap in care for people recovering from illness or injury without a safe place to heal.
It’s also part of something much bigger. The center is one piece of the city’s broader “Gateway” endeavor — a growing network of services designed to create a more coordinated, city-backed system for addressing homelessness. With around-the-clock care and support services, the respite program helps patients stabilize and take steps toward housing.
“The idea with medical respite is you can recover here under medical supervision and also that gives you time, most importantly, so that we can figure out the long-term answer of some sort of housing and so forth,” said Mayor Tim Keller. “It’s something we’ve needed for several decades.”
Keller said the city had to build its homelessness response system from the ground up because it had never taken an active role before. For years, it depended entirely on groups like Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless, along with other nonprofits and faith organizations. But he said that approach became outdated as Albuquerque grew.
The Gateway System is the city’s long-term effort to create its own network of services while still working with trusted local partners. Four sites are now open: Recovery Gateway, Family Gateway, Gateway West and the Gateway Center, which Keller described as the “hub” in a hub-and-spoke system.
One issue people raised again and again was medical care, Keller said.
“If you didn’t have a good place to live, or in some cases, if you were even living on the street, and then you had a medical issue, where do you go after?” he said. “It’s not safe to go out on the street.”
“That’s the idea,” Keller said. “The city builds the facility, but we don’t pretend to be the experts.”
He said that’s why Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless, a longtime local provider, runs the medical respite center. Keller introduced Gail Starr, the center’s program operations manager and full-time nurse and Kate Morton, chief clinical officer for the organization, as experienced partners in the work.
That partnership is already making a real difference.
At the center, patients like James don’t just get a place to rest — they get coordinated care that helps them heal and get back on their feet. With a full-time nurse, regular doctor visits and access to extra support services, the respite program gives people a chance to move forward instead of slipping through the cracks.
A patient’s story
James said Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless supports people as they transition back into society and helps them find housing. The staff, including his nurse, Starr, has been wonderful in helping him recover.
“My foot actually started bothering me a little bit, and I was in enough pain that I couldn’t take myself to the hospital,” James said. “Once I arrived, I found out that I had a huge infection in my ankle.”
He said that within a week, he learned about the respite center and was brought there. “Somewhat to my surprise, I just love it here. It’s a great place for me to recover. I get all the help I need, and it’s clean and safe.”
“Well, the friendliness and the want to help me recover was fantastic,” James said. “I was impressed by how clean and nice this place is — I have a bathroom right here in my room — it’s been wonderful. I couldn’t have imagined that there’d be a place like this that was available to me.”
He added, “ I was really awestruck, but I’ve received nothing but kindness and care more than I deserve. But they’re a wonderful group of people that operate this facility and our medications are right there at hand, everything that we need. We’re fed, we’re, we can get clean, and we’re taken to our hospital appointments, our doctor’s appointments. It’s just been fantastic.”
James said transitioning out of homelessness would have been impossible without the support he’s received at the respite center.
“I’m certain I couldn’t do it on my own,” he said. “I was in a situation I absolutely can’t go back to. Being on the streets — it’s a crying shame that we’d have to do that here in America.”
When asked what advice he’d give others in similar situations, James didn’t hesitate.
“Get here,” he said. “If you really need it, this is the place to be — bar none. I am ever so thankful that it’s here. So please, if you need help, find out where we are. It will be available.”
The collaborative approach
James’s experience shows how vital the medical respite center is for people facing tough health challenges without stable housing.
“This has been eight years in the making,” Morton said. “It’s just been a really wonderful experience to see people like James and others get the help that they need and be able to be a small part of that.”
The medical respite center runs on more than just city support — it thrives because of strong partnerships.
Operated by Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless, the center works closely with groups like the University of New Mexico Hospital, First Nations Community Healthsource and Heading Home to connect patients with care and stability. Starr and Morton, who both call this their “dream job,” shared how the program came together.
Starr said that teamwork is at the heart of everything they do. From walkable access to addiction treatment services to on-site medical and mental health care, the goal is to meet people where they are — and help them move forward.
“The goal is really per patient,” said Starr. “So many of our patients are very different.”
She shared a recent moment with one patient. “One just told me he’s going to leave and he’s so grateful for the time he came here. ‘I couldn’t even think about what to do next,’ he said. ‘This has given me a safe place.’ He almost started crying and now he has a goal.”
Helping patients goes far beyond medical care.
“We have our housing navigators come in to help patients,” said Starr.
Starr said staff use a tool called the VI-SPDAT, or Vulnerability Index – Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool, to determine who needs help most and what type of housing or support is the best fit.
Patient advocates help people recover essential documents like IDs, Social Security cards and Medicaid.
Public benefits specialists also step in to connect patients with support programs. Starr said most of this work happens behind the scenes, but it’s what makes long-term success possible. Now that the center has been running for a while, some patients, like James, are beginning to move on with plans in place.
Tracking impact and looking ahead
The center is still growing — currently, it serves about 20 patients with the goal to help 320 to 400 annually.
“There’s some turnover—people stay for a while, some leave on their own, and some have been housed,” Starr said. “We just reached 20, so it’s growing slowly, but we’re getting there.”
Asked if 50 beds are enough to meet the city’s homelessness and healthcare needs, Starr said, “There’s always room for more, but this is a good start.”
The respite center is part of a five-year pilot program that limits referrals to a core group of partners — UNMH, Health Care for the Homeless and First Nations — to allow detailed outcome tracking and evaluation. Once the pilot phase ends, there are plans to assess results and potentially expand referrals.
“We have a detailed plan to track outcomes and make adjustments as needed. After that, we hope this model can be replicated elsewhere in the state.”
“We have to use this facility and fill it up,” Keller said. “We want every James who is looking for help to know and find help here. But to do that, it takes continued partnership, and it also takes funding. It takes council support, and it takes county and city and state support. We had that for construction, but now we’ve got to run it.”
He added, “I think this is a good example of how powerful it can be when we actually just go full in. We needed the entire system of care, and now we’ve built it and some of it’s opening and it’s making a difference.”
How to get help:
Housing and Treatment Navigation Center at Gateway
For questions or assistance, contact the operator, Heading Home, at 505-537-8588.
Refer a Client: Guests are accepted into the Gateway Center by service provider referral only.
If you need to make a referral, please contact a local homeless service provider.
Resources for People Experiencing Homelessness
- 2024 Resource Card: View a comprehensive list of local services for housing, food, showers, clothing, and more.
- New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness: Visit nmceh.org
- Homeless Help Line:
- Call: 505-768-HELP (4357)
- Text: 505-600-2835
- Email: 768-help@nmceh.org
Health Care Services
Funded fully or in part by the City of Albuquerque.
Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless
- Address: 1217 1st NW
- Phone: General – 505-766-5197
- Behavioral Health – 505-242-4644
- Dental Clinic – 505-242-8288
- Medical Clinic – 505-242-4644
- Fax: 505-766-6945
- Website
First Nations Community Healthsource
- Address: 6416 Zuni SE
- Phone: 505-262-2481
- Website
Child Care Services
Cuidando Los Niños
- Offers case management, day care, and Early Head Start programs
- Address: 1500 Walter SE
- Phone: 505-843-6899
- Fax: 505-764-8296
- Website
Landlord Resources
The Landlord Engagement Program (LEP) helps landlords with financial incentives to support successful tenancies for permanent supportive housing voucher holders.
- Benefits include up to $3,000 for damages, $1,000 for improvements, $500 for start-up costs, and one month of vacancy loss coverage.
- Contact LEP at:
- Phone: 505-225-3491
- Email: LEP@nmceh.org
- More info at NMCEH
City Health, Housing & Homelessness Department
- Contact: Evangeline, Office Administration
- Phone: 505-768-2860 or dial 311 (505-768-2000)
- Fax: 505-768-3204
- Email: hhh@cabq.gov
- Physical Address: 400 Marquette NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102
- Mailing Address: PO Box 1293, Albuquerque, NM 87103