Former San Mateo Inn to be shelter for young adults

The city’s Westside Emergency Housing Center (WEHC) is considered a necessary but harsh shelter for the hundreds of residents who stay there, and its distant location from city services has long been a criticism. The former jail facility has been described as “deplorable” and “scary.”

Even though physical improvements are in progress, the WEHC isn’t particularly hospitable for young adults aged 18 to 25 who are motivated to secure permanent housing and employment. But city officials announced May 31 that a more tenable option is underway. 

The city has purchased the former San Mateo Inn for $4.8 million, to be renovated into a shelter with wraparound services for young adults who are experiencing homelessness. Work at the site, located at 2424 San Mateo Blvd. NE near I-40, is expected to begin later this year. About $12 million in all for the project was secured through a mix of city, state and federal funds.

“We should be placing services for the unhoused in the city. These are people just like you and me, so making sure that they have access to services in the immediate vicinity is important,” said City Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn. 

Fiebelkorn said that historically the only option for unhoused young adults is to “go to the WEHC and be scared.“

“They just don’t feel safe; they don’t feel comfortable in that situation,” she said.

The inn will have enough beds to accommodate 30 to 40 people. The site will have common areas, a community kitchen and enough space to offer future transitional housing options. The city will eventually solicit bids for wraparound services and security at the facility.

Precarious generation

While unhoused young adults have been a focus of advocates for years, the topic was heightened after a city-commissioned report was published in 2022. It found that there were 1,300 to 2,300 15-to-25 year olds in Bernalillo County either experiencing homelessness or who were precariously housed. Many self-reported that their situations were due to being kicked out of a home, running away, domestic or family violence, eviction, substance use or aging out of the foster care system.

“This report was presented to us and it broke my heart,” City Councilor Renée Grout said. “You don’t always see them on the street; they can be couch surfing. It’s a bigger issue than people realize.”

Grout became particularly concerned about those who had just turned 18, leaving foster care, and finding themselves in dire circumstances.

“That first day is the scariest day of their life,” she said. “They somehow end up over on Central [Avenue] and then somebody shows up and says: ‘hey, come with me, I’ll take care of you,’ and that’s the beginning of the end.”

Grout worked with Fiebelkorn and City Councilor Brook Bassan to find a site located away from the areas of Central that are more prone to crime, drug abuse and sex trafficking. The location also offers access to mass transit, restaurants, retail, entertainment, city parks and job opportunities — something that caught Fiebelkorn’s attention after reading the answers young people gave in the report to the question “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

“They said in an apartment and in a job,” Fiebelkorn said. “But that’s not the answer you get when you go to the WEHC where some [older adults] have kind of lost that feeling that they can get back into society. Young people still have that, and we want to make sure that we nurture that and help them reach that goal.”

Grout said the shelter would offer more than just a bed.

“We want these young people to feel part of the community,” she said. “We see this as a safe place where young adults can learn life skills and find a job, build a resume, and finish school.”

The Freedom Magnet High School — geared toward students who have been through hardships — is nearby, and there are mass transit routes to Central New Mexico Community College and the University of New Mexico.

“It’s just so exciting to get the building and know that we’re moving forward,” Fiebelkorn said. “We need to be doing more on affordable housing so that we maintain people in their existing homes, because once they are unhoused, it’s much more difficult to get them back.”