The mayor said the city needs new 5,000 homes. His budget proposes less than 200.

In 2022, Mayor Tim Keller announced his goal to have 5,000 housing units across the city by 2025 to help with the city’s affordable “housing crisis.” So far 165 affordable units have been built and the next fiscal year’s budget includes funding for 195 housing units — still far short of the goal.

Katie Simon, the Department of Health, Housing and Homelessness spokesperson, said this year’s budget is a “flat budget” without massive programmatic increases.

The city’s housing production has been between 100 and 200 units annually with funding from the Workforce Housing Trust Fund and HUD HOME funds, she said.

“These are the only recurring City funding sources for affordable housing,” she said. “We have asked the City Council to create a new housing trust fund to generate additional housing revenues and so far they have not pursued this. We also always pursue additional state and federal funds, and will continue to do so, to meet our housing goals.”

Keller’s proposed fiscal year 2025 budget also includes $52.2 million for a new department to address the city’s challenges of homelessness, affordable housing and behavioral health.

On July 1, the Community Services Department will officially be split into two departments – Health, Housing and Homelessness and Youth and Family Services.

A $27 million budget has been proposed for the new Youth and Family Services departments. This includes $5.3 million for child and family development and $2,944 for educational initiatives. 

Meanwhile, the proposed budget also includes less money for supportive housing and voucher programs — $8 million, down from $14 million last year. She said the adjustment was proposed based on the history of funds expended by the end of each fiscal year. 

City Desk ABQ reached out to City Councilors Brook Bassan and Tammy Fiebelkorn for comment on the mayor’s proposed budget and what changes they might make. Both said it was early in the budget process and they were still reviewing the proposed budget.

According to Keller’s budget, the key to addressing the city’s homelessness, housing and behavioral health challenges is taking a comprehensive approach to the root causes, such as substance abuse, mental health, domestic violence and youth opportunity. 

This approach includes a new budget request of $100,000 in non-recurring funding for a technology system that enables the city and providers to coordinate social services for people experiencing homelessness and behavioral health challenges. This system will act like Santa Fe and Dona Ana County’s social service referral platform. 

“This new platform will allow for less paperwork for clients seeking social services and allow for providers to see what other services people are receiving and where they are receiving them, in a HIPAA compliant way, so that there is less duplication,” Simon said. 

The budget also projects that there will be more people who need services to address domestic violence, sexual assault and substance abuse.

Simon said the goal of this year’s budget is to adjust back to standard revenue levels as federal funds from COVID recede.

“This fiscal year, Serenity Mesa will open their new youth detox facility and we have also added a new youth provider to our existing substance use treatment voucher program. Current funding levels will support the projected increase in people served,” Simon said. “We have heard from the experts on the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Commission that the demand for services is increasing, but in this flat budget year, we are working to maintain current levels of funding. We know that domestic violence and sexual assault providers are pursuing other state and federal sources to help fund their work, and we will continue to support them in these efforts.”