‘Falling through the cracks’ A family's journey over half a year without shelter.

Wednesday morning at a motel at the southern end of the foothills, Destany Prentice, 45, and her three children are packing up for the umpteenth time all of their belongings that are scattered across the two-bed room they’ve spent the last month in.

“We’re screwed,” Prentice said. “As of tomorrow, we’re totally screwed. We’re totally gone, out of here, on the streets as of tomorrow.”

The next morning, the temporary hotel voucher that was keeping a roof over the family’s head expired.

As his mother and older brother, Chad Megah, 27, recall the past nine months on Wednesday, Khristopher Frost, 20, paces anxiously across the motel room as the realization sets in that he, his siblings and his mother will likely not have a roof over their heads the next day. William Prentice-Gay, 13, the youngest, doesn’t say a word, lying on the bed with a hoodie on. At one point, his mother, in tears, hugs him and tells him she loves him.

They don’t know where they’ll go next. Prentice fears the family might spend Thanksgiving on the street.

“What a wonderful holiday, huh?”

Her voice breaks, tears follow.

“We’re falling through the cracks here,” Megah said. “I don’t know how many other families are going through this.”

It’s unclear how many families are in similar situations; though Mayor Tim Keller told the Journal in a sit-down Thursday that he estimates the actual number of homeless on Albuquerque’s streets tops 5,000. Some $300,000 has been allocated to the program, according to Gavino Archuleta, Homeless Projects and Initiatives division manager for the city’s Health, Housing and Homelessness department. His department did not provide a number for how many vouchers they could provide, despite multiple requests for the figure.

The city also has housing vouchers, a more permanent solution to help people get shelter, but Archuleta said funding for those is thin.

Hotel vouchers are provided by and funded through four nonprofits the city has partnered with: the Barrett Foundation, the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness, Heading Home and Albuquerque Healthcare for the Homeless.

Hotel and motel vouchers could be for a week and up to four weeks, depending on need, Archuleta told the Journal on Thursday. “They may be extended, but those are extenuating circumstances.”

While providing insights into how the voucher system works, both the Albuquerque Community Safety (ACS) department and the city’s Health, Housing and Homelessness department said they could not discuss the specifics of the family’s situation.

The family’s journey

In 2020, Prentice and her three boys moved from Oklahoma to Albuquerque, living at an apartment in the International District until March, when Megah said the landlord raised the rent and “threw them out” when they couldn’t pay it.

From March to May, the family couch-surfed with different friends. Then from May to August, they stayed at Family Gateway, a city-operated shelter that is part of its Gateway Network of shelters and services. The Journal is not publishing the location of Family Gateway to protect the individuals living there.

Stays at Family Gateway are usually 90 days, but can be extended or families might leave and return, Archuleta said.

However, Megah said that staff told them their time was up and they could not return to the shelter for a year.

Hinting that the family didn’t follow guidelines, a spokesman for the program simply cited their rules and regulations that all participants have “respectful behavior towards others, abstaining from criminal activity on property, compliance with safety protocols such as turning in weapons, and adherence to case management plans,” or they risk being discharged from the program. “Discharges are handled with compassion and include providing referrals to alternative services and resources to support the resident’s transition,” said Connor Woods, Health, Housing and Homelessness spokesperson, in a statement Friday.

The family was promised a housing voucher that never came, Megah said, and they have been turned down from all the apartments for which they’ve applied.

Since leaving Family Gateway, the family has stayed at motels but ran out of money and most recently used a motel voucher as they try to find the cheapest place they can find to live.

The family said they were directed to the motel at which they were staying by ACS.

ACS has staffers called navigators — separate from the “community-oriented” and behavioral health responders who take 911 calls — to aid people and connect them to resources and help with everyday needs. A navigator has been working with the family to help get Megah a job at Taco Bell, though he’s waiting to find out when he starts, and helped with the motel voucher, said Walter Adams, deputy director of field operations for ACS, told the Journal Thursday.

“All of our transports go into a warm handoff right to that service provider,” Adams said. “So I think a big piece is, what happens next? The connection’s made, what happens next?”

Next would be back to a shelter once the hotel voucher expired, Prentice said. Their ACS navigator recommended Joy Junction, a Christian-based homeless shelter based in the South Valley.

“I will not go to Joy Junction, I know what they do there. I’ve heard stories. I’ve heard crazy (expletive) stories about how people were ripped off as soon as they walked in the door,” Prentice said, saying she’d heard stories of robberies and sexual violence.

Such stories are “made up” and the shelter is safe, Elma Reynalds, executive director of the shelter, told the Journal Friday.

ACS also recommended Gateway West, the city’s largest shelter, about 30 minutes by car from the city center. That facility also has developed a reputation for being unsafe, which is why Prentice does not want her family staying there either.

During a Nov. 1 news conference, Keller acknowledged the safety concerns but said things have changed. “Our West Side shelter used to not be the most hospitable place,” he said. “It is in a vastly different place than it was last year.”

Gateway West has undergone renovations, including added cameras and locked storage areas, according to Woods.

However, going to Gateway West would require the family to split up as it is an adult shelter and Prentice-Gay is 13.

“I’m not willing to separate my kids from my kids,” Prentice said.

Prentice and her three boys left the motel Thursday morning.

Friday morning Megah texted: “Found a couch to crash on thank god.”

While grateful, Prentice said over text she’s tired of bouncing around but prays her story will help other families, like hers, in need.