Last fall, the City of Albuquerque launched its Shelter Connect Dashboard to help first responders see which shelters had open beds. But by this summer, the public tracker was showing badly outdated numbers with Good Shepherd stuck on November 2023 and S.A.F.E. House on October 2024.
The stale data raised doubts about whether the tool was helping or getting in the way. CityDesk had previously reported that while some shelters updated daily, others seemed to have dropped off entirely.
City officials said the problem came from “a temporary technical glitch [that] prevented internal data from being transferred to the external dashboard,” according to Connor Woods, city spokesperson. He said the city was working to resolve the issues with the system it had announced as part of its cold-weather response.
Shelter staff say the system is easy when it works.
“Once a day, usually for us, it’s at night, we submit the number of beds that we have available through a portal through the city,” said Amy Kendrick, executive director of S.A.F.E. House. “It takes us about, I don’t know, 15 seconds.”
The technical problems appear to have been resolved.
Woods said the glitch “was corrected upon discovery and should not occur again.” He added that some shelters are contractually required to update, while others participate voluntarily.
“The majority of shelters on the list are City partners, meaning the City has an active contract with that particular service,” Woods said. “Providing regular updates is a part of these contracts. The other shelters listed are not contractually required to provide updates and do so on a voluntary basis. We are continuing to work closely with these providers to maintain accurate information.”
As of this week, all nine participating shelters show current numbers — Good Shepherd at 91% capacity and Safe House at 100% – rather than the outdated information from months or years ago.
With only 58 beds available across all tracked facilities citywide during a recent check, the real-time data proves critical for emergency response.
For S.A.F.E. House (Shelter and Family Empowerment), which serves domestic violence survivors, the system provides value by helping first responders avoid unnecessary calls when shelters are full.
“I think it’s a way for first responders to provide better resources to the community,” Kendrick said.
Albuquerque Fire Rescue doesn’t place people in shelters directly but instead calls in Albuquerque Community Safety. “If someone requests services, we will call out ACS to make those connections,” said Lt. Jason Fejer, AFR spokesman.
According to ACS, the dashboard is part of a mix of tools it uses for shelter coordination.
“ACS uses several tools to coordinate shelter placements, including the Shelter Bed Tracker,” said Jorge Hernández, ACS spokesperson. “It’s used alongside direct coordination with shelter providers to ensure smooth placements.”