Anami Dass, the chair of Albuquerque’s Human Rights Board, read a statement on behalf of her friend Levy, who couldn’t attend a June 22 public hearing on anti-homeless sentiment and discrimination. Dass said Levy tried to explain months ago what it was like to be discriminated against for being homeless to a case manager.
“His description was the best I’ve ever heard,” Dass said. “He said: ‘They look at the way I look, the way I behave, the words I’m speaking, my mannerisms, my attitude and how I smell — and assume, based on all of that — that I’m homeless, that I’m dangerous, that I’m a criminal, that I can’t be trusted. What they should assume is that I’m poor.’”
Such emotional testimony came at a steady clip before the Human Rights Board at the International District Library, located in an area of the city where many people are living on the street. About two dozen people provided testimony about their experiences being homeless, or as advocates and community members increasingly distraught at the state of affairs for the population.
The board decided to focus its efforts this year on homelessness — specifically the hostilities and discrimination levied toward the population. It is expected to issue a report filled with months’ worth of research and recommendations to city leaders July 22. The board is appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council as a recommending body. Including Dass, members are Kimberly Andujo, Samia Assed, Kathryn Boulton, Jack Champagne, Leticia Galvez-Trujillo and Larry Hinojos Jr.
“It is a much more emergent problem than I think anyone really realizes,” Champagne, the board’s vice chair, said. “There are a good 100,000 people statewide that are one bad day away from being homeless.”
Adam Lister, a physician assistant at First Nations Community HealthSource, agreed.
“My biggest worry is that middle class folks don’t know that homelessness is coming for them,” Lister said. “We usually think of homelessness as, ‘Oh, they’ve had very traumatic experiences which have probably led them to drugs or mental illness.’ But more and more it’s, ‘I can’t pay rent; I got evicted; I don’t know what to do.’”
Lister works in the First Nations homeless outreach program, which includes visiting the city’s Westside Emergency Housing Center on Wednesday mornings.
Removal, disposal of belongings
A main topic of concern among those who testified is city removal and disposal of personal belongings of those living on the streets. The city’s current policy is to provide a 72-hour notice and offer a storage option. However, many testified that the policy is often not followed.
“I have personally worked with and witnessed people having their things thrown out and being incarcerated for being homeless,” Emily Warzeniak, a case manager in Albuquerque, said.
Warzeniak said she spends much of her time helping homeless people replace vital documents — like Social Security cards and driver’s licenses — that were with belongings that were removed by the city or stolen.
“It can take upwards of several weeks or a month to replace documents with the help of a case manager like me, only to look out the window of my agency and see the city throwing those things away,” she said.
Warzeniak said the lack of identification documents also creates barriers when applying for city housing vouchers and other services.
Rowan Rosen, who works at the library, said she was testifying on her own behalf. She said the library’s bathrooms are the only ones she knows of in the International District that are free and accessible to those living on the street and it’s not enough.
“It is a constant issue,” she said. There can be 20 to 30 minute waits quite often.”
Rosen said she’s also concerned with “extreme discrimination” by the city’s Metro Security Division that “[try] to intimidate the unhoused people in the area and the people who are supporting them.”
“We’ve had issues with them harassing [Albuquerque] Health Care for the Homeless,” she said. “We had a group come and give out free haircuts, Narcan training, free clothes — everything someone might need — and Metro Security gathered outside in a way that was quite clearly intimidating for them.”
Rosen said she’s also concerned about a lack of sun shades at the city’s bus stops and of the violence she sees.
“We’ve had to call [emergency medical services] multiple times for heatstroke and the violence that I’ve seen every day is extreme,” she said. “I’ve had a 70-year-old come in with broken orbital sockets because they were sleeping on the streets and were attacked. I’ve had people sitting on the side of the building who have maggots in their legs because they’ve been unable to access medical care. I’ve had someone come in with his hand skinned to the bone who just wanted a Band-Aid because there was no way he could access medical care.”
Others had more general concerns, such as Rosemary Blanchard, a retired former attorney. She said a lack of focus on human dignity is affecting the city and has led to a “deterioration of the culture.”
“I think we need to look at what we’re becoming,” Blanchard said.
Courtney Angermeier, a teacher at New Futures High School, said half of her student population is unhoused with babies and toddlers. She said her concerns have largely fallen on deaf ears at the city.
“I’ve been trying to do the things you’re supposed to do — talk to my city councilors, write letters to [Parks and Recreation], the chief of police, the Mayor’s Office,” she said. “So far, the only written response I’ve gotten is from [City] Councilor [Tammy] Fiebelkorn. I just want to make it part of the public record that sitting officials are not responding to these issues.”
Unhoused voices
Several who identified themselves as experiencing homelessness provided testimony to the board.
“It’s chaos. I’m just going to keep on trying,” Arron Esquibel said. “I get showered and clean myself up and got into medical programs. I’m still looking for jobs and stuff like that. I’m doing it for my kids. I want a lot of things, but it’s hard, it’s really hard.”
“It’s very heavy outside,” Henry William Draper Jr. said. “You don’t have daily necessities like to take a shower or food. You have to stay up to be able to watch your own stuff. Money is a necessity as well.”
Mahad “Mo” Ahmed said after he was fired from his job he became homeless. He’s been living on the streets for about six months and thought he’d be able to turn his situation around sooner. Ahmed said he often stays at Jerry Cline Park because he has access to a restroom and to water from a nearby dog park. He said it’s also safer than other locations in the city.
“That’s as good as it gets when you’re outside and trying to survive,” Ahmed said. “I never saw myself here. I am disregarded everywhere I go and labeled a threat.”
“Right now we’re in a crisis. It’s completely horrible,” Army National Guard veteran Andrew Romero said. “I used to not feel sorry for people who used drugs, and looked at them and said, ‘Oh, that’s gross.’”
Romero said he’s had several jobs, including as a truck driver. He has a degree in personal training.
“Now I’m experiencing how tough this is. It’s horrible,” he said.
Public health issue
Janus Herrera, a longtime homelessness advocate, said she first started handing out food to those living on the streets in 2015 at Coronado Park in the Wells Park neighborhood where she lives near Downtown. She said there’s an urgent need for public restrooms, water stations and temperature-controlled gathering spaces.
“These are not amenities as the city likes to call them, but social determinants of health. The lack of these basic human rights is causing preventable disease, death and despair,” Herrera said. “Living outside means eating shelf-stable lukewarm food, being thirsty and dehydrated, having doors closed in your face or being chased away with threats of legal action, incarceration, violence and degradation.”
Enrique Cardiel, the executive director of Bernalillo County’s Health Equity Council, said the situation should be treated as a “severe public health issue.” He said his group has tried to hand out Narcan and water on empty lots in the International District, only to be removed by the city’s Code Enforcement Department.
Cardiel said there’s a good likelihood that an emergency epidemic will emerge due to the volume of people using the bathroom outside.
“The response has been to give our neighbors without addressing hepatitis A vaccines, instead of providing restrooms and homes,” he said. “We have an opportunity to build the healthiest city in this state and the healthiest city in this country, and we’re choosing to throw that out the window by not taking care of the folks who need the most support.”
Those wishing to provide emailed statements on anti-homeless sentiment and discrimination can do so via email through June 28 at civilrights@cabq.gov. More information is here.
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.