Three questions with the man overseeing Bernalillo County’s wellness motel program

The Bernalillo County family wellness motel offers transitional housing to families. The annual program evolved from an emergency winter shelter program that the county still runs. Along with transitional housing, the program includes case management to help participants find stable housing.

The Journal interviewed Deputy County Manager for Public Safety Greg Perez about how the program has evolved.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: In terms of case management, what does that look like for people? In this context, what does having your case managed mean?

A: Their goal is to try to get them tied into whatever it is they need. There may be some that need counseling services. There may be some that need a level of addiction treatment. There may be some that need help getting a driver’s license or need help finding their Social Security cards again, so that they can gain employment. There’s a laundry list of things that that the case managers are able to get in there and do. They really don’t know what that is, though, until they get that initial meeting with the family members to start that process.

Q: What does it mean for people to have a resource like this, where they can just go and stay?

A: We’ve heard from individuals that are housed in there, the ones that we’re able to get them out and placed successfully, they basically said that they were on the verge of utter collapse. Something as simple as a place that they feel safe changes the world for them.

Q: Do you have a sense of the demographics of who’s staying here?

A: We have a lot of single moms, although we do have a few single dads that are in there. ... We do have some families that are mom, and dad, and kids. We also have grandparents that are in there with kids. It’s kind of all over the place. But again, for us the big piece is families.

When we first started the program three years ago, we were kind of taking in anybody. In doing that, we weren’t able to establish that safe environment that people were trusting. When we had single individuals there, it’s just different, right? When you’re trying to integrate families and single folks, it didn’t work as well as when we made the shift to say we’re only taking families now. ... We saw a lot of change happen, where folks started to take ownership. You’d come up to the hotel, and there’d be someone outside sweeping the front walkway of everybody’s rooms, and you’d start to see the decorations pop up, and you’d see a couple of the moms standing outside talking and visiting, while the kids were playing together. I think that it took us a little bit of time to get there. But I think by bringing in families and families only, it’s helped to create a sense of community.

Find out more about the wellness motel program.