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By Jesse Jones, The Paper. — Families in the Duke City who rely on federal housing funding got a boost this week, even as the larger fight over that money goes on in Washington.
U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury, a Democrat, announced Wednesday at Saranam’s Westside campus more than $7.6 million in Community Project Funding for seven district housing projects. The funding includes $4.5 million for Albuquerque’s Gateway Young Adult Housing and Treatment Navigation Center, nearly $995,000 for Saranam’s family transitional housing campus, $500,000 for Youth Development Inc., $300,000 for the Veterans Integration Center, $850,000 for the city’s planned senior stability shelter, $250,000 for Bernalillo County to expand affordable housing and $250,000 for Housing New Mexico. “Our task as a congressional office has been to support all of the existing ecosystem and infrastructure to build it up because we already have an extraordinary ecosystem,” she said. “We just need more money and more resources to address and tackle the need.”
Stansbury also highlighted the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which became law July 11 without President Donald Trump’s signature after the president refused to sign the law until Congress passes his SAVE America Act. The law aims to boost affordable housing construction, cut red tape, expand financing access, limit institutional purchases of single-family homes and expand housing programs for rural and Native communities.
The local investments are already expanding services. Albuquerque’s 41-bed young adult center opened in April and has served about 55 people, with more than 10 moving into permanent housing, according to Gilbert Ramírez, director of Health, Housing and Homelessness. The city plans to add 30 beds. At Saranam, the investment more than doubled its capacity to serve families experiencing homelessness.
Ramírez told The Paper. that a recent court ruling should keep about $3.75 million in annual Continuum of Care funding intact for another year, even as federal policy moves toward transitional housing and treatment programs. “That does not mean that our work is done,” Ramírez said. “We continue to prepare to look at what does next year looks like.”
Stansbury’s office is seeking another $32.4 million for four district projects, including the Windy Point Housing Development for the Mescalero Apache Nation. Local organizations can submit projects for consideration when her office opens requests in late January or early February.
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