Local bookstore may be fined for letting unhoused people sleep in parking lot

A local bookstore is facing an administrative hearing with the Code Enforcement Department on Monday after repeated violations from the City of Albuquerque for allowing unhoused people to congregate and sleep in the store’s parking lot.

Gillam Kerley, owner of Quirky Books, at 120 Jefferson NE, has allowed homeless people to sleep in the parking lot for over a year and a half and says he felt he had a responsibility to offer people a safe place to sleep at night, even though the city has issued the bookstore numerous notices of violations of the zoning code.

Currently, the parking lot is home to 18 people between 12 tents.

“We think it’s important to be treating unhoused people as human beings,” Kerley said. “We’ve gotten to know the people in our parking lot, and we want those people and their property to be safe.”

On Monday, Kerley and the bookstore will face an administrative civil enforcement hearing, where they will possibly face consequences for zoning violations. The city has the option to administer fines on the store and issue an order that requires Quirky Books to remove the homeless people from the parking lot.

The city’s Planning Department didn’t comment on the hearing last week.

Mayor Tim Keller’s administration has had a large focus on unhoused people, from increased encampment sweeps to the unveiling of its newest policy: Safe Outdoor Spaces, which are organized, managed camps where people who are homeless can sleep overnight in tents or vehicles. Albuquerque’s Point in Time count in 2024 determined there were 2,749 people experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque, which marked a 14% increase from the year before. But advocates for homeless people have said the number could be higher.

When asked how his administration reconciles its desire to shutter Quirky Book’s efforts with its call for more Safe Open Spaces volunteers, Keller said there are lots of options for people to help and for people to get help.

“We want to offer all of those options,” Keller told the Journal in an interview. “That’s why ... we announced that we’re totally open to Safe Outdoor Spaces.”

But he said it’s important for people to go through the official channels.

“We want more folks to apply to host (Safe Outdoor Spaces),” Keller said, “It can be a book store. They just have to apply.”

In a statement posted on the store’s Instagram page, the bookstore urged citizens to attend the hearing to “ensure that the Keller administration and the City’s hearing officers know the community is watching and supports our right to assist our unhoused neighbors”.

“What’s happening right now is that the city’s increasing sweeps of encampments and the criminalization of homelessness on public property means that private property owned by someone who is willing to allow them to camp is really the only place they and their property are safe from the city,” Kerley said.

“From a public policy standpoint, it’s better to have them camping on our property, where they’re welcome, than being in parks and sidewalks where they’re maybe not welcome or may be interfering with other people’s use of those properties.”

However, one man’s good deed may be another’s nuisance.

Jude Brunner, a manager at the Firestone Complete Auto Care store just around the corner from Quirky Books, said the unhoused people use the bathroom near the store, causing it to smell of feces and urine. He said the company spoke to city officials about the issues in the area.

“They walk through our parking lot all day long and a lot of the times,” Brunner said. “They kind of scare away customers as well because customers leave their cars here with us, and sometimes we don’t have enough room in the shop to lock them all up, so it’s the risk — that’s the biggest thing.”

He added that other building tenants in the area, like marijuana dispensary Score 420 Nob Hill and two other shops, also raised issues about the unhoused people traversing the area.

“The businesses nearby would prefer that we not be doing this,” Kerley said.

Though all the businesses noticed an uptick in unhoused people in the area, Kerley said that shift may have also come from encampment sweeps that have shifted where unhoused people settle every night.

“The New Mexico Constitution guarantees everyone a right to seek and obtain safety and the right to their property,”Kerley said, “and we are enabling the unhoused people on our parking lot to secure these rights under the Constitution.”

Journal staff reporter Justin Garcia contributed to this report; You can reach staff writer Nakayla McClelland via email at nmcclelland@abqjournal.com.