Transparency measures and new contracts approved by City Council amid housing crisis

The Albuquerque City Council this week approved two measures seeking to increase transparency and efficiency around the city’s services for people experiencing homelessness.

A resolution and a memorial, put forth by Councilor Renée Grout, passed early Tuesday morning. The resolution directs the city’s Health, Housing and Homelessness department to make the housing voucher process “more efficient and transparent.” The memorial — essentially a formal statement by the council — asks for support from the state to create a pilot program for a “behavioral health and housing resource” dashboard.

“I’ve asked lots of questions over the year about our housing voucher issues. … Taxpayers have spent a lot of money. We have appropriated a lot of money to this initiative, but ... we’re not seeing the results,” Grout said.

The resolution received unanimous support while the memorial passed 8-1, with Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn voting against it, expressing concern that the cost to develop a dashboard could be put to better use.

“When folks need housing, they need it now, and they shouldn’t have to go through all these different avenues to get there,” Grout said Monday. “We need to have it more transparent. It needs to be really efficient, and I am hopeful that this will help the department get on track.”

A Health Housing and Homelessness department official, however, described the resolution as redundant.

“A lot of the things that she’s asking for we’re actually already doing,” Charlie Verploegh, deputy director of the Health, Housing and Homelessness department, told the Journal on Monday. “They had said that we don’t have a coordinated entry system, but we do have that. She also said that we don’t have any way to track providers and what they’re doing, but … every single month we meet with them, we make sure that they’re meeting the numbers that they’re required to meet in their contract.”

The resolution also asks for the Health, Housing and Homelessness department to vet an IT provider to create a dashboard that tracks where housing vouchers are in the city, but Verploegh said the funding that would be required could be put to better use.

When it comes to permanent housing vouchers, the city partners withnonprofits, allocating $7.9 million to provide over 1,300 people housing. But to qualify, the recipient must meet the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s definition of chronically homeless: a full year without shelter or four episodes of homelessness over three years. The city also invests over $300,000 in hotel vouchers, according to Verploegh.

There are an estimated 5,000 residents experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque.

In November, the city had to cut ties with one of its voucher providers, Supportive Housing Coalition, after it failed to pay $200,000 in tenants’ rent, leaving the city to foot the bill.

However, the council approved two contracts with nonprofits Heading Home and Good Shepherd to fill the void left by Supportive Housing Coalition that had the potential to affect nearly 50 tenants.

The department placed the contracts on the agenda for approval.

The passing of the two measures from Grout marks the latest policies introduced by her focusing on the issue of homelessness.

At the City Council’s final meeting of 2024, she sponsored two ordinances aimed at restricting overnight camping in public spaces and the use of public parks by people experiencing homelessness. Both pieces of legislation passed.