The campaigning hasn’t stopped, but now the focus is homelessness. Daymon Ely, an attorney and former three-term state representative, has spent the past 12 months developing a proposal to address homelessness in Albuquerque.

The problem is well documented: There are more people living on Albuquerque’s streets, some with severe mental health and addiction issues, and a critical shortage of affordable housing. The statistics tell part of the story and, anecdotally, residents and business owners see it across the metro.

Ely’s plan includes short, medium and long-term strategies. Short-term: work from one publicly available strategic plan that everyone follows, and expand existing programs versus creating new ones. Ely said key medium-term priorities include understanding the city’s diverse homeless population, leveraging public campaigns, and considering locations “where a community might accept another shelter.” Not surprisingly, perhaps, the long-term strategy is heavily focused on providing more housing.

“If the homeless advocates I talk to are right, every four days somebody [who’s homeless] dies,” Ely, 66, said. “It’s not acceptable. We need to figure out a way to give people an alternative to camping out.”

The proposal casts a wide net to engage homeless advocates and providers, behavioral health workers, politicians, business owners, residents, religious leaders and those who’ve experienced homelessness. 

Getting started

It was a lunch with Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and Associate Chief Administrative Officer Bob White that got Ely crafting his proposal. He’s now a senior adviser to the mayor. Ely said Keller recently read the latest draft of his almost 40 pages of ideas.

“We appreciate his desire to help by bringing actionable solutions to the table to better leverage the resources of the city and county to make meaningful progress on the issue,” city spokeswoman Ava Montoya, said in a statement to City Desk ABQ last week. “He brings years of experience tackling complex challenges facing our state and we’re happy that he’s lending that experience to the city.”

Two of the city’s high-profile facilities to address homelessness are the Gateway Center at Gibson Health Hub and the Westside Emergency Housing Center. Ely has shared his proposal with Gilbert Ramírez and his staff, too.

“We have supported his effort by providing him with information that accurately reflects our department’s strategic work and priorities,” Ramírez, the city’s director of Health, Housing & Homelessness, said in a statement to City Desk ABQ this week. “We look forward to the ongoing conversation about how the proposed solutions can be operationalized and how to improve conditions for those who need it most.”

Ely also presented his proposal to the Bernalillo County Behavioral Health Initiative supportive housing subcommittee last week.

No more whack-a-mole

The proposal sets goals, measurements, timetables, budgets and ideas for existing programs to “put everyone on the same page.”

“Otherwise, we are just playing whack-a-mole and the problem will get worse,” Ely said.

He suggests a reimagining of the Westside Emergency Housing Center — a site he said is essential, but flawed, as it has the feel of the jail it once was.

“We can expand it by putting in portables and pallet homes, but not a dormitory,” Ely said. “The city doesn’t want it to be there forever and I get that concern. In the meantime, we need to get people off the streets.”

Pallet homes are made of wooden shipping pallets and are typically used as a transition from a tent to a permanent home.

Ely thinks the time is right to capitalize on historic funding that’s available through the federal Inflation Reduction Act and from state coffers. He also thinks the city and county are well situated to lead the nation on the issue with “excellent people” working on homelessness in the community and in government.

“It’s a manageable problem, but you have to be strong-willed. We have this brief period of time when there’s real money,” Ely said. “There’s real political will to do something about it. The problem is getting worse, and the public knows we’re not gaining ground.”

A legal malpractice attorney, Ely said that while the courts are essential, they aren’t a solution. 

“The court’s focus is, rightly and myopically, the rights of the homeless,” he said. “You can’t trample on people’s rights, but what about the rights of the business community, the neighborhoods and the community?”

For his ideas to work, Ely said multiple parties have to be invested — churches, businesses, the public and private sectors.

“You can’t sit on the sidelines. Everybody needs to pay attention,” he said. “If we can solve it, Albuquerque could be rocking and rolling.”