As housing costs rise, a project near the North Valley offers relief — and renewal

When scrolling on social media, Albuquerque resident Marcus Hamill often comes across stories of people from states like California or Oregon living in their cars due to high rents and little assistance.

“So I comment and I’m like, ‘Well, just come to New Mexico.’ Because New Mexico is giving out those benefits,” Hamill said while spending time with his four dogs in the shade of a dog park at Calle Cuarta last week.

Calle Cuarta is a new affordable housing complex nearing completion at 3525 Fourth NW. The project was 95% complete as of last week, according to Chris Baca, CEO and president of YES Housing, the project’s developer.

The project’s progress will be celebrated on Tuesday in a ribbon-cutting ceremony set to draw elected officials and representatives from the housing and financial organizations who played a role in the development.

The project comes as state and local officials are pushing more affordable housing and getting homeless people off the streets. In August, officials announced a more than $80 million investment from the state to support housing projects and homelessness initiatives in Bernalillo County.

Calle Cuarta, which currently spans more than 86,000 square feet across three buildings, was not among the projects funded by the state investment, but it has received roughly $30 million in low-income housing tax credits and grants over the last several years, and YES Housing has invested around $3 million, Baca said.

The project, which broke ground in early 2023, includes more than 60 apartments with up to three bedrooms, four retail units and four live-work units, the latter of which Baca said are rare for Albuquerque, entailing an apartment in the back and a space for business up front.

Existing infrastructure is expected to reach completion around mid-October, and an additional 21 townhomes will be built over the next two years, Baca said.

The property’s amenities include a computer lab, fitness room, social service office, dog park, playground, bike trail and four garden beds, which Baca said could help supplement food budgets through roughly 30 pounds of produce.

With the development near the North Valley, YES Housing wanted the property to reflect the area’s deep-rooted ties to agriculture in some way, Baca said. It did so through a mural that can be seen driving north past the complex on Fourth NW.

The artwork, a 1,000-square-foot mural by Albuquerque artist Paz Ehecatl, features a father and son beneath a moonlit sky, walking beside a tree of life, all framed by grapes and corn stalks.

The mural, which will be lit and visible at night, references the area’s local farms and vineyards of the past and present and represents the community’s “responsibility to pass down knowledge to younger people,” Baca said.

Baca envisions the surrounding neighborhood’s young people playing a role in shaping the property by possibly getting their first job at one of the businesses or opening one of their own at the complex.

For now, the property sits largely empty and dusty, as construction crews put finishing touches, but parts of the complex have already welcomed a couple of tenants, including Hamill.

Hamill just moved into one of the complex’s two-bedroom apartments a few weeks ago. A property manager at YES Housing’s Imperial Building in Downtown — where Hamill lived for 11 years — recommended Calle Cuarta to Hamill as he sought to gain more space and walkability.

“It’s been great,” Hamill said, adding that the affordability of the space has been helpful.

The property’s apartments are available to low-income renters, particularly those who make 80% or less of the area’s median income.

Hamill’s monthly rent at Calle Cuarta is $530, a number he said has shocked his large TikTok following.

“I was showing photos of the dog park and everything, and people were like, ‘What? You get that for as much as you’re paying for rent? That’s crazy,’” Hamill said, adding the space looks more like a $1,500 to $2,000 apartment.

The live-work and retail units, available at market rate, were intentionally included to pump new economic activity into the area, Baca said. No agreements have been signed, but the developer has received letters of intent from a new bodega concept, a personal fitness business and a bridal shop.

“Anything we do, we have to do some kind of economic development stimulus,” Baca said.

The new businesses brought to the area are intended to benefit not just the complex’s tenants but the people living in the surrounding neighborhood, Baca said.

The impact of the new development has already started to spread, Baca said as he pointed to a row of houses across from the complex on Fitzgerald Road. The homes were dilapidated when the Calle Cuarta project began and have since been bought and updated.

“They’ve all been redone,” he said. “When we bought the property, we thought, ‘This is not good,’ but the change just happened. I guess they said, ‘OK, you guys are doing that, we’re gonna do this, too.’ It’s a visual representation of what this kind of stuff can do.”

YES Housing also owns a large, rundown Southern Tire Mart next door, which the organization aims to turn its attention to early next year, Baca said. The organization plans to put millions into renovating and converting it into a multi-use project that has the potential to welcome several more businesses.

“It’s got lots of potential, but we’ve got to activate the area. It’s not used to this kind of stuff,” Baca said. “It’s a lot to absorb, but the area needs it.”