Bernalillo County has millions of dollars waiting for commissioners to spread around when they meet up on Tuesday Feb. 20, for their regular meeting. Commissioners will also hear reports from the University of New Mexico Hospital and from UNM Bureau of Business and Economic Research on the impact of the sprawling Santolina Development planned for […]
Housing & Homelessness
Posted inAlbuquerque, Housing & Homelessness
Downtown Albuquerque: Reboot
Editor’s note: This is the first installment in a series titled Downtown Albuquerque Reboot, about the city’s center, its challenges and the plans to address them. Read about vacant buildings here, peruse a photo essay about lowriders here, read about crime here and end with what the area has to offer here. Big front porches […]
Posted inAlbuquerque, Housing & Homelessness
City-owned Los Altos Lofts marks a housing first
The conversion of hotels and motels into housing is not a new concept in U.S. cities — Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Denver and Austin have done it — but Albuquerque’s latest project is a distinctive one. Los Altos Lofts, located at 10330 Hotel Ave. NE, is the first hotel-to-apartment conversion and renovation that’s owned and overseen […]
Posted inAlbuquerque, Courts, Justice & Safety, Housing & Homelessness
New police oversight board meets after year hiatus
After more than a year, the city’s Civilian Police Oversight Advisory Board met Feb. 8 to get organized on how to go about clearing a backlog of more than 82 civilian complaints against the Albuquerque Police Department. This was their first meeting in more than a year after city councilors did a major revamp of […]
Posted inAlbuquerque, Education, Housing & Homelessness
Safe spaces equal safe schools
These days, creating safe spaces in our schools is becoming as important as creating safe schools. Not all on board Some parents at Double Eagle Elementary in Albuquerque are upset at the signage in the school designating where the Safe Zone space is. Specifically, the Pride flag signage. But APS doesn’t have any rules regarding […]
Posted inAlbuquerque, Housing & Homelessness
Q&A: New housing director faces complex homelessness crisis
Gilbert Ramírez took the helm at the city’s Health, Housing & Homelessness (HHH) department Jan. 1, replacing outgoing director Carol Pierce. The position is a high profile one, as the city contends with a dual crisis of increased homelessness and lack of affordable housing. Roll-in additional complexities like mental health and addiction issues and Albuquerque, […]
Posted inAlbuquerque, Housing & Homelessness
City Council OKs spotlight on blighted motels, voucher program
The Albuquerque City Council unanimously passed an ordinance Monday night that creates an 11-member working group tasked with reforming the city’s emergency voucher program and addressing the blighted motels where they are often used. Councilors Renée Grout and Nichole Rogers said they sponsored the bill because the city’s blighted motels not only pose a health […]
Reader-supported
Who will be APD’s new watchdog?
Tackling the problem of revamping the city’s housing voucher program is set to be debated at Monday’s Albuquerque City Council meeting. Also on the government table is taking a look at selecting a director of the struggling Civilian Police Oversight Agency. CPOA Leader Albuquerque’s police oversight agency has been without a permanent executive director since […]
Reader-supported
With smiles and surveys, volunteers count city’s homeless
Car trunks were packed with goodie bags filled with granola bars, gummy bears, crackers and bottles of water as teams of volunteers carpooled to different areas of the city this week. On day and night shifts, they walked sidewalks, cul-de-sacs, alleys, bike trails, arroyos and busy intersections. They looked under bridges, scanned perimeters of vacant […]
Posted inAlbuquerque, Housing & Homelessness
Issues on Gibson pedestrian bridge trouble residents
The pedestrian bridge near Gibson and San Mateo boulevards in Southeast Albuquerque was built decades ago to give residents and workers safe access to coffee shops, restaurants and businesses along one of the city’s busiest streets. But residents say recent activity on the bridge has made the journey across it an uneasy one. The bridge […]