OPINION: City should stop funneling money to homeless population

Mayor Tim Keller has taken an “all the above approach” to deal with the city’s homeless crisis. It’s an unsustainable “black hole” of expenditures. Keller has established a total of five shelters that are to operate as an integrated system:

• The Gibson Gateway Shelter.
• The Gateway West Shelter.
• The Gateway Family Shelter.
• The Youth Homeless Shelter.
• The Recovery Shelter.

In the last three years, the city has spent upwards of $275 million on homeless shelters, programs and purchasing and remodeling motels for low-income housing. In 2021, the city acquired the Lovelace Hospital for $15 million and spent $90 million to remodel it into the Gateway shelter. In the last two years, the Keller Administration spent $25 million to purchase and remodel motels for low-income housing.

In fiscal year 2021-2022, the Family Community Services Department spent $35 million on homeless initiatives. In fiscal year 2022-2023 the department spent another $59 million on homeless initiatives. On June 23, 2022, Keller announced that the city was adding $48 million to the fiscal year 2023 budget to address housing and homelessness issues in Albuquerque.

The fiscal year 2026 General Fund budget for the Health, Housing and Homelessness Department is $53.3 million. The sum includes $48 million for strategic support, health and human services, affordable housing, mental health services, emergency shelter services, homeless support services, shelter operations, substance abuse services and $4.2 million for the Gibson Gateway maintenance division.

The city is seeking funding for 116 separate services contracts totaling $53.7 million to pay for services provided to the unhoused:

• $30.4 million for 32 affordable housing contracts.
• $6.3 million for 12 emergency shelter contracts.
• $2 million for 16 health and human service contracts.
• $5.7 million for 29 homeless support service contracts.
• $3.8 million for five Gateway Shelter operating contracts.
• $2.2 million for 11 mental health service contracts.
• $2.6 million for 11 substance abuse treatment contracts.

The 2024 Point In Time homeless survey found an 18% increase in Albuquerque’s homeless numbers. The PIT survey identified 2,740 people experiencing homelessness, including 1,231 on the streets, 1,289 in emergency shelters and 220 in transitional housing. The HHH Department’s fiscal year 2026 budget performance measures report emergency unsheltered as 6,103 in 2023, 7,420 in 2024, 7,257 targeted in 2025 and 8,439 targeted in 2026. Keller has allowed the unhoused to proliferate city streets, parks and open spaces declining to enforce city and state vagrancy laws and make arrests. The problem is the chronic unhoused refuse to accept city services as Keller continues to throw city resources at the crisis.

A 2025 report by the city found 30% of individuals experiencing homelessness self report having a serious mental illness, 25% self report having a substance use disorder and around 66% experience some form of mental health condition. Too many chronic unhoused simply refuse city services. Keller has essentially proclaimed the unhoused as “wards of the city.” The mayor’s approach is not sustainable. Such responsibility must be undertaken by the state or federal government. The millions spent to help the unhoused with many refusing services would have gone a long way to finance community centers, senior citizen centers, police and fire substations, preschool or after school programs, senior citizen programs, and police and fire programs.

A solution to deal with mentally ill and drug addicted homeless people who refuse city services is the initiation of civil mental health commitments by the state to mandate mental health care or drug addiction counseling in a hospital setting after a court hearing determining a person is a danger to themselves or others. Such an approach would get the mentally ill and drug addicted the health care they desperately need and off the streets.

Pete Dinelli is a former Albuquerque city councilor, former chief public safety officer and former chief deputy district attorney. You can read his daily news and commentary blog at www.PeteDinelli.com