New Mexico
Dashboard aims to keep public informed about progress on homelessness
The City of Albuquerque is trying to keep the community in the know with regular updates on homelessness and what it’s doing to improve the situation.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The City of Albuquerque is trying to keep the community “in the know” with regular updates on homelessness and what it’s doing to improve the situation.
“I have been working on the street out here for 15 years and the level of desperation I cannot explain it to you, it is awful and I have never seen it like this,” said Christine Barber, executive director of AsUR New Mexico. Her group reaches out to women who are homeless to get them resources and supplies.
Barber said about 60% of homeless women live on the streets to escape abuse.
“We’ve heard this story over and over and over and over, they feel safer on the street than they do at home,” Barber said. “They might get a tent, or they might stay with another woman, but then they will come be moved by the city, oftentimes without warning, even if they’re just laying on the sidewalk trying to get some sleep because they had to stay awake all night for safety, which is very common.”
Now there’s a new push from the city to show the work it’s doing to help the homeless community.
Katie Simon with the CABQ Health, Housing, and Homeless Department said the online dashboard will be updated monthly with statistics like how many people are in shelters and the number of times city employees have approached homeless camps to give them notice to vacate.
“We want folks to be able to understand a little bit more about how we’re addressing homelessness. You know homelessness is a complicated problem,” Simon said.
Simon also went over the city’s process of removing homeless encampments.
“For any other public property, we have a process where our outreach folks are giving people – first they offer people a shelter bed, they offer them storage of their belongings and transportation to that shelter, and if those offers are refused then we give them 72 hours to vacate the area,” she said.
The website also lists resources for people who are homeless and how to report encampments.
Barber said the dashboard is nice, but it points to what she calls a major flaw.
“Then they have to go find a place somewhere else the next day because they can’t go to a shelter because there’s no shelter space according to their [the city’s] own statistics,” Barber said.
She said most of the women she helps are even less safe if they are constantly having to move, adding she hopes to see transitional housing that doesn’t get rid of people’s possessions.
“Now they’re starting to arrest people for being on public property for trespassing thinking that’s the solution to put them in jail but when they get out of jail because they can’t afford the bail, they’ll still be homeless what have you solved nothing,” she said.
Native Vote 2026
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Laguna Pueblo woman is the front runner to be New Mexico’s next governor.
Shortly after polls closed Tuesday night, Deb Haaland was declared the winner over Bernalillo County district attorney Sam Bregman in the state’s semi-open Democratic Party primary. As of 11:00 p.m., Haaland carried support from 72% of the Democratic primary voters to Bregman’s 28%, according to unofficial results from the New Mexico Secretary of State.
“We’re showing everyone that a better future in New Mexico is possible,” she told supporters gathered in Albuquerque’s historic Old Town Plaza. “New Mexicans want a leader who will stand up for working people, and who is ready to take on Donald Trump. I proudly accept your nomination as a Democratic nominee.”
Haaland spoke for 13 minutes, at times through a scratchy throat that required her to pause for water breaks. “Excuse me, I’ve been talking with voters all day,” she said while grabbing a water bottle before hitting her campaign stump notes on affordability, health care and public safety.
She will face Republican Gregg Hull, a former mayor from suburban Rio Rancho that won his party’s three-way primary with 47% of the vote, according to unofficial results from the New Mexico Secretary of State.
Haaland will be the Democratic Party nominee in a state dominated at every level by Democrats, and is expected to be heavily favored in the general election. With that insight she said her campaign message does translate to Republicans and Independent voters.
“We want our kids to thrive. We want our kids to have a quality, public education. We want every New Mexican to have health care. Everybody wants to feel safe in their neighborhoods, and everybody wants to be able to afford to put a hot meal on their table every night and have a roof over their children’s heads,” she said. “Those issues transcend whatever political spectrum we’re trying to slice and dice people into.”
Shortly after the race was called, Haaland campaign staff, major donors, surrogates, and their families walked from a building on the west side of Albuquerque’s Old Town Plaza to the historic plaza core, where the Haaland campaign had set up a stage and reserved the entire plaza for its victory celebration.
“We are now witnessing history in the making,” New Mexico state Rep. Derrick Lente (Sandia Pueblo) said to supporters immediately after Haaland was declared the winner.
Denise Wilie (Dine) also joined the celebration of Haaland’s victory. Wilie said she worked on get-out-the-vote efforts with the Native American Voters Alliance in McKinley County.
“It just is so exhilarating to even think about, a woman and a Pueblo woman,” she said. “Indigenous all the way, is how I feel. I’m like, yes, let’s get more of our voices.”
Haaland was introduced by her two sisters and walked to the stage escorted by a mariachi band.
Speaking to reporters after the event Haaland reflected on voting for a Pueblo woman (herself) for governor.
“I got emotional, quite frankly, when I went to vote for myself because you do that when you’re a candidate,” she said. “We’ve never had a Native American governor in New Mexico. We’re a multicultural state. I think representation matters, especially in a political era such as this one. So, I’m really proud and honored to carry on the legacy of my ancestors, who worked so incredibly hard to make sure that I had a place here today.”
Related
When a famly unexpectedly loses a loved one, or has someone go missing, the details of what comes next can be overwhelming.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – When a famly unexpectedly loses a loved one, or has someone go missing, the details of what comes next can be overwhelming.
But they don’t have to do it alone thanks to an organization helping New Mexico families with some of those burdens.
Watch the video above for more.
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