Another viewpoint: Homelessness should be higher priority for delegation

A bocce court. Public murals. A dog park. There are more than 100 Albuquerque projects funded in the 2019 Legislature’s capital outlay bill. A long-term solution to the metro area’s rampant homelessness problem is not one of them.

And so, unfortunately once again, the many senators and representatives elected by the area’s 911,000 area residents to represent them in the Legislature have failed to form a coalition to advance solutions to a big challenge almost every one of them witnesses daily.

There is no question homelessness is a huge issue here — an estimated 5,000 to 8,000 people sleep in our few shelter beds, in motels or cars, or on our streets, sidewalks, doorways and parks every night. Bernalillo County has raised taxes to fund mental health and housing initiatives. Albuquerque has directed funding to keep its winter shelter open year-round and is collaborating with University Hospital on a longer-term solution.

And yet, when Mayor Tim Keller pleaded for the state to help with a $28 million centralized, low-barrier, 24/7 homeless shelter, he got a whopping $985,000 — around half the $1.8 million appropriation for a West Side sports complex.

It is not to say sports, bocce courts, dog parks and public murals aren’t great things to have. But when thousands of people are begging on corners, sleeping on streets, scratching out an existence one meal to the next, it shows Albuquerque’s delegation is really no delegation at all, just a group of politicians bringing home scraps of bacon to their own districts.

Now, Keller plans to put the first $14 million phase on the city’s November general obligation bond ballot. Just as Albuquerque taxpayers had to fund the majority of the highway interchange rebuild at Paseo del Norte and Interstate 25 a few years ago, they will apparently have to fund the majority of any answer to this heartbreaking homeless problem.

Meanwhile, if the less-fortunate residents among us end up camped out under a public mural, outside the West Side sports complex or in the Northeast Heights dog park or bocce court, members of our “delegation” know who to blame.

— Albuquerque Journal