It’s been a long and frustrating quest for the city to find a new operator for Gateway West, formerly the Westside Emergency Housing Center. After eight months of searching — and about 90 days until an emergency contract expires — it’s still unclear who is willing or able to take on the task.
The facility accommodates 660 people experiencing homelessness, including the medically vulnerable and those with mental illnesses and substance use disorders. Many residents, including hundreds of seniors and veterans, have been living there for years.
After the city was unable to find a suitable operator in a March request for proposals (RFP) process, it had little choice but to ask the current operator, Albuquerque Heading Home, to stay on — negotiating a $2.1 million emergency contract to operate the facility from July 1 to Dec. 31. The nonprofit’s three-year contract (at $4.1 million a year) expired June 30.
Heading Home’s chief executive officer, Connie Chavez, said in April that the homeless services provider wasn’t interested in continuing to manage the site, saying that operating a facility like Gateway West was “never our mission.”
Who will step up?
Operating the 24/7 Gateway West is a daunting task. The operator must coordinate medical and supportive services, meals, laundry, security, sanitation and the cleaning and orderly use of common areas. It is also required to provide bus monitors on vehicles that carry scores of people experiencing homelessness to and from pickup points in the city.
After the failed March RFP process, the city decided to split the contract into two buckets — one for operations (at $3.1 million a year) and one to provide social services, like intensive case management (at $750,000 a year).
When asked Monday about the status of finding a new operator — the city’s RFP is no longer active — Health, Housing & Homelessness Department (HHH) spokesperson Connor Woods said one had been identified and contract negotiations were underway. He said once a contract was finalized and approved by the City Council, a public announcement would be made. No specific timeline was provided.
City Councilor Nichole Rogers said if the city expects to transition to a new operator at the end of the year, a contract should already be in place.
“There’s no talk in this [emergency] contract about a transition plan,” Rogers said. “There’s nothing that obligates Heading Home to do a transfer of leadership. That’s concerning to me.”
Rogers said she’s also concerned about the $2.1 million price tag, saying it’s “quite a bit of money for a small amount of time.”
Woods said the contract would require Heading Home to give a 45-day notice before ending operations — ostensibly enough time for a new entity to take the reins.
“Our new contractor and Heading Home will work together to provide a seamless transition for our vulnerable population at Gateway West,” Woods said.
He added that the emergency contract, like many city contracts, is under a “reimbursement model.”
“Only Heading Home’s actual expenses will be paid,” Woods said. “At this point, we don’t see an increase in spending.”
Meanwhile, Rogers feels uneasy about a lack of detail in the emergency contract’s reporting requirements for security and staff training.
“It says that they need to provide onsite security, ensuring safety standards, but it doesn’t specify how many [per resident]. That, to me, is important,” she said.
Rogers said when she arrived at Gateway West for an unscheduled visit earlier this year, she saw one security guard on duty.
“One security guard is not adequate in my opinion,” she said.
In addition, Rogers said the contract language is too vague on requirements that staff have lifesaving skills and de-escalation skills.
“What, specifically, do they need to have? I would have been more prescriptive of CPR, Narcan training — things that are more appropriate than just general lifesaving skills,” she said. “This just tells me that the City Council needs to get involved in contract management to make sure that there’s data to base decisions on where to put our funding.”