City could prioritize clearing encampments near Central Avenue as winter approaches
Nov. 8—Just a block south of Central Avenue in the International District, Natalie Rankin and Prince, her black and white 8-month-old pit bull mix, climb out of their camouflage tent Thursday morning.
Rankin has been experiencing homelessness for the past four years, mostly in Albuquerque.
Rankin said she stays near Central to be near businesses that give out leftover food, a 24-hour laundromat and churches that provide resources and shelter. The snow on the ground had melted away as the sun poked out, but the mountains behind her still boasted a white coat.
As winter temperatures set in, the city of Albuquerque is eyeing an update to its encampment policy that could make the tent Rankin shares with her partner and puppies a top priority for removal by crews tasked with clearing encampments along Central, the city's main thoroughfare.
The Journal obtained a copy of the draft of the encampment policy. There is no set date for when it would take effect, but the Mental Health Response Advisory Committee will provide comments on Nov. 19, which will be considered before finalizing the policy updates.
The draft policy revamps one penned by the city in October 2021 and revised in October 2022.
The newest iteration changes the priority of what encampments to target first, shortens the timeline for which individuals have to be notified of an encampment clearing, and how long they can store their items with the city. It also increases training for city officials who approach encampments.
According to the estimates of Mayor Tim Keller — at a September NAIOP meeting — there are 5,000 people in Albuquerque experiencing homelessness. At that meeting, he said that the number of encampment clearings per month needed to double.
When it comes to the priority of encampments to clear, per the new policy draft, those "within one block of Central Ave," top the list, followed by encampments within 300 feet of school property and those in city parks.
That concerns Jasmine Brickey and Jacob Castillo, who hunkered down inside their tent a block from Central as it started snowing on Wednesday night.
"When you're this close to Central, it's businesses that you're in front of. It's not people's houses. No one wants people camping in front of their house," Brickey said. "If we have to be at least a block from Central ... it starts getting residential."
There are three tiers of priority encampments. Priority 1 is made up of 17 kinds of encampments — topped by those near Central, schools and parks, including ones where human feces is present — those in an arroyo, ditch, or irrigation channels, those where access is restricted for an event or permit holder and wherever the city conducts municipal operations, to name a few examples.
"I know, once they get so many complaints, they come in off that street, so they're trying to make it, make us go where we're not wanted so that we get complaints faster, so we get kicked out of there faster so that we're either in a shelter or in jail. There's no nowhere else to go," Brickey said.
Priority 2 is made up of six types of encampments topped by those within 300 feet of medical care, where individuals have "damaged or destroyed city property," and where the city has responded to multiple calls for a fire.
Priority 3 pertains to any encampment that doesn't fit the criteria of the 23 sites explicitly listed.
The existing policy lists nine types of encampments in all — five in Priority 1 and four in Priority 2. The top prioritized encampment sites according to the 2022 policy are those located in a children's park, near community centers and those "obstructing" streets and sidewalks.
The draft policy states that before clearing an encampment, "city personnel" — defined as any city employee or city contractor — should identify themselves, perform a wellness check and then attempt to educate those in the encampment on where they can get shelter, meals or medical care. The draft policy does call for increased training for each city employee who comes into contact with the individuals at an encampment site.
"There's not a whole lot that's different other than it just clearly defines different roles for each department, ensuring coverage and outreach coverage. It increases transparency, consistency and accountability," city Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Matthew Whelan told the Journal. "Routinely, as times change or as things change, you have to take a look at them and change with them."
Whelan also said the prioritization of encampments on and near Central was to target areas with higher rates of homelessness.
"That's a really important area, and part of that is just because of the concentration of people that are in that area," Whelan said.
Before removing an encampment, the current and draft policy state the city must evaluate how many available shelter beds are available. Last week, the city rolled out a new dashboard that tracks the availability of beds at city shelters. A majority of the beds listed are at Gateway West, 30 minutes from the city's core and where many people living on the streets do not want to stay.
"Shelter is a choice, and individuals have the right to refuse it. And what we've noticed over time is when you continually offer resources, and you're continually out there, and you get to know the individual, they're more likely to take up the resources, they're more likely to go to Gateway West or the oncoming Gateway Center," Whelan said.
If beds are not available at city shelters, the draft policy states that no action should be taken unless the encampment presents an "immediate hazard."
If beds are available and the individual declines the offer of shelter, the city official can proceed with the clearing the site. There is no need to notify whether or not an encampment is going to be cleared.
While not requiring notice to clear an encampment deemed an immediate risk, the existing policy allows for 72 hours of notice to be given to those occupying the encampment if they were not present. The new draft allows for only 24 hours of notice for Priority 2 encampments and 36 for Priority 3.
For Priority 1 encampments, the draft policy says the city personnel should give two hours notice to the individuals at the site but can give even less notice if deemed necessary.
"You're not allowed to camp, per the law within the city. So whether it's off of Central one block, or on Central, we really have to enforce what we need to enforce," Whelan said.
The city is also changing the timeline for which property can and will be stored. In the existing policy, an individual could store property with the city for 90 days. The draft policy only allows for 14. Whelan said this is because the city could not find a contractor that "was willing to do it for a reasonable price."
Jeremy Clauss, who has been on the street for the past year, said he's had his stuff thrown out during an encampment clearing.
"They threw away my cellphone, my laptop, all my climbing gear — like, I had over $2,900 in climbing gear. ... They threw away my sleeping bag, my blankets, everything. So I pretty much had to start all over," Clauss said.
Late in 2023 and early in 2024, the city, especially its Solid Waste Management Department, has come under fire for handling encampment clearing and throwing away unhoused residents' belongings.
Clauss, who also had a tent set up a block from Central on Thursday, said he and those with neighboring tents set up were told to move by an officer with the Albuquerque Police Department.
"We know that broadly, encampment clearance does not end homelessness. Again, the only thing that successfully ends homelessness is housing, and pairing housing with any necessary social and medical services that people may need in order to remain stably housed," Charley Willison, a researcher and assistant professor at the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health at Cornell, told the Journal Thursday.
The city of Albuquerque has estimated it needs to add roughly 15,500 housing units to shelter its unhoused and for people making less than 30% of the local median income.
Willison added that while she thinks it's a positive that the availability of shelter beds can dictate whether action can be taken on an encampment, little notice is given.
"Which is also concerning when we're thinking about the ability of people living in encampments to be able to find alternatives and respond, but the biggest thing is the link to shelter," Willison said.
On Thursday night, the city's shelter tracking dashboard listed 271 available beds of the 1,284 it tracks, 108 of which were at Gateway West.
"The worst ones, the ones that are not effective and that will contribute to cycles of homelessness, are ones that, again, are just encampment abatement, without access to services. The kind of gray area — it's better, but it's not good — are the ones that do abatement plus outreach. But again, they aren't focused on the long-term housing component," Willison said.
"The best ones are ones that say, which Albuquerque does hint or at they at least talk about, 'if shelter is not available, we won't clear an encampment unless it poses an immediate hazard.' So that's the kind of the loophole is there are many different ways that they could define 'immediate hazards.'"
