4 takeaways from this week’s Albuquerque City Council meeting

Addressing housing shortages continues to be a key issue for Albuquerque, and the Albuquerque City Council voted Monday to consider changes to one program that supports people experiencing homelessness and heard about upgrades needed at the Westside Emergency Housing Shelter.

Here's a look at what councilors were up to on Monday:

Councilors voted for a new Civilian Police Oversight Agency director.

Albuquerque’s Civilian Police Oversight Agency has a new director, who is also the old director. The Albuquerque City Council selected interim director Dianne McDermott from three finalists to serve as the agency’s new director.

The Civilian Police Oversight Agency investigates and reviews complaints or commendations of the city’s police department. Along with overseeing the agency, reviewing complaint investigations and monitoring internal affairs investigations, the CPOA director can recommend officer discipline to the Office of Police Reform.

Councilors want to reimagine motel vouchers.

The Albuquerque City Council approved creating a working group to reimagine the city’s motel voucher program on Monday. Councilors Renee Grout and Nichole Rogers sponsored the bill.

Motel vouchers are meant for temporary stays — like one day to a week, according to Katie Simon, public affairs specialist for the city’s Health Housing and Homelessness Department. The motel vouchers are distributed at the discretion of agencies that hold motel voucher contracts. Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless and First Nations frequently use the motel vouchers to help people who are trying to recover from medical care by giving them a safe place to stay, according to Simon. Sometimes the vouchers are used to help people fleeing domestic violence.

The city spent approximately $500,000 on motel vouchers last year, $150,000 of which went to Bernalillo County for the resource re-entry center. The re-entry center helps people getting out of prison or jail, and the funds help the county serve 350 households.

The six homeless service organizations with motel voucher contracts expect to serve 558 people in the current fiscal year with approximately $562,000 in funds.

The West Side shelter needs more than $5 million for upgrades.

Gilbert Ramirez, director of the Department of Health Housing and Homelessness, presented the Westside Emergency Housing Center’s strategic capital improvement plan to the council.

The shelter is 18 miles outside the city and was originally for jail overflow. More than 500 people call the shelter home, Ramirez said. It is the largest shelter in the state.

The behavioral health case management area and the clinical area were both redone after 2018. The facility’s warming kitchen was recently updated. There are 60 new beds, and privacy areas are being added to the showers.

The shelter has 12 dormitories and all need some repair. The roof and HVAC system have recently been repaired, but the hallway needs to be renovated and the facility needs new flooring and lighting. The facility upgrades would cost an estimated $5.9 million.

The shelter is seeing a push of people who have recently been medically discharged, Ramirez said.

"We’re continuing to see higher and higher needs of medical clients who are being discharged to our facility, which is probably not the most ideal, but there are no other options in our community for those who are unhoused,” Ramirez said.

The long-term solution is the Gateway facility, which will have 50 beds for people exiting hospitals who need a place to recover, Ramirez said.

The CAO went into a locked council area after hours. Councilors grilled her over it.

Several councilors grilled city Chief Administrative Officer Samantha Sengel during Monday night’s council meeting because she entered the locked council area after hours to drop off the list of Mayor Tim Keller’s Air Quality Board appointees. The names were left in a lobby of the council office, and Sengel did not enter any of the councilors’ offices, she said.

The chief administrative officer’s badge can enter any of the city facilities, because it is her job to manage the facilities. Councilor Brook Bassan alleged that Sengel used a master key to enter the space, while Sengel said she simply used her electronic work badge.

Several councilors took issue with Sengel entering the space after hours. Sengel said she was just trying to meet the deadline set by the council to get the appointee names delivered.

“I recognize now that there are no policies in place to dictate otherwise, so I’m working on that to correct it ... so that we can be very clear on how the council should be treated as an equal branch of government, not as an employee or department of the mayor’s office,” Bassan said.