These

ad hoc settlements take root in the cracks of the

formal planning process. While they are often portrayed as a
disorganized state of emergency, I find that the self-
organized tent city actually addresses many of the shortfalls
of more traditional responses to poverty Consequently,
these tent cities provide a foundation for a village modela
model that physically builds upon the positive social
elements of these camps by transitioning from tents to
simple micro-housing structures, commonly known as tiny
houses. This scenario improves the quality of life for the
residents within, eases anxieties of the surrounding
community, and sets a broader precedent for human-scale
development with a light carbon footprint. Similar to the
once popular SRO hotels the village model provides a sense
of ownership over a small, private space and combines that
with shared, common spaces.
Andrew Heben Tent City Urbanism: From Self-Organized
Camps to Tiny House Village (2014:xii)

Addressing the Cracks

a working group document
2015

Addressing the Cracks:

One Way to Incorporate More Effectively the

Realities of Transitioning from the Street to
Affordable Housing in Albuquerque

We are proposing that the City of Albuquerque

introduce three entry-level tiers in the citys path
towards affordable housing.

This would be a supplemental measure and should in
no way be seen as a proposal to supplant the current
service providers.

It is cheaper by far to address and alleviate the realities of

homelessness than dealing with the complications that
accompany the non-housed condition.

CABQ adopted the Housing First model in 2005.

This model has been endorsed nationally. It underscores the importance of placing non-
housed individuals and families in housing first and then meet their various needs with
supportive services that help to keep them in housing.1 However, the previous Continuum of
Care (CoC) services model is still in play and the 2016 proposed CABQ budget allows for
$32,640 to NM Coalition to End Homelessness (NMCEH) for CoC services, besides the amounts
allocated for coordinating the CoC submission and assessment.

Our proposal can be likened to the introduction of a continuum of

sheltering steps leading to eventual long-term affordable housing.
We came to see the need for this approach as we worked with non-housed community
members who sought out tent encampments while waiting on elusive housing vouchers,
working on their individual paths to improve their respective conditions, or, even if they were
not yet ready to embark on the next steps, benefited from the sense of community within the
encampments. We are not suggesting that this approach will speak to every non-housed
resident of Albuquerque. We do know that this approach is a feasible and highly cost-effective
plan to stabilize a significant proportion of the Albuquerque non-housed who are currently
falling through the cracks.

1 A Community Response to Homelessness in Albuquerque 2013-2017; p. 11. Updated September 2014.

http://www.abqheadinghome.org/wp-content/uploads/Community_Response_to_Homelessness-2013-2017-
Final.pdf.

The term homeless is a misnomer.

The only sure thing [non-housed] people have in common is the one thing they all lack.2 The
NMCEH defines homelessness as a conditionnot a class of people.3 Yet, the term homelessness
centers on the social and affective concept of a home rather than on a formal building structure such
as a house. As people who live on the streets create homes for themselves from whatever they find at
hand,4 the term houseless or non-housed would capture their condition of lacking a house more
realistically.5 Following John Turners concept of housing as a verb,6 we are further advocating for
an expansion of the term shelter to incorporate even a lowly tent or a more sophisticated microhouse. This thinking is in line with Turners proposition to distinguish between what things are,
materially speaking, and what they do in peoples lives.7

There are no accurate census data available on the non-housed

population of Albuquerque or, for that matter, on the non-housed
populations anywhere in the U.S.
The NMCEH reports 1,287 people in its 2015 Point-in-Time (PIT) count. This number
increased from 1,171 in 2013. However, the PIT counts are known always to be drastic
undercounts and the APS Title 1 Homeless Program currently reports enrolling close to 4000
non-housed pupils with their siblings.8

2 Cohen,

Carl I. and Jay Sokolovsky 1989 Old Men of the Bowery: Strategies for Survival Among the Homeless. New
York: The Guilford Press; p. 112
3 A Community Response to Homelessness in Albuquerque 2013-2017. Updated September 2014.
4 Zimmerman, Larry J. and Jessica Welch 2011 Displaced and Barely Visible: Archaeology and the Material Culture of
Homelessness. Historical Archaeology 45(1): 67-85.
5 Irvine, Leslie 2013 My Dog Always Eats First: Homeless People and Their Animals. Boulder: Lynne Riener; p. 34.
6 Turner, John 1972 Housing as a Verb In Freedom to Build, Dweller Control of the Housing Process. John F.C. Turner and
Robert Fichter (eds.), 148-175. New York: Collier MacMillan; p. 151.
7 Turner 1972; p. 152.
8 Personal interview with the programs liaison, Patrick Scott, on 25 June 2015. Mr. Scott cited the number of enrolled
minors for 2015 at that point as 3760. However, he did not have the two most recent counts handy and said that the
actual number would be higher.

The backlog in finding long-term housing will not be eradicated in the

near future.
The NMCEH lists three main obstacles: there is a recorded shortage in affordable housing
available to low-income and very low-income individuals and families; there is an urgent
shortfall in federal, state, and local funding resources to address the shortage in affordable
housing; and [m]any low-income residents face barriers to accessing available public and
private affordable housing.9 In July 2013, the housing voucher program for the Albuquerque
Housing Authority (AHA) had a waiting list of 2,785 eligible households.10 According to the
AHAs website, the waiting list is currently closed with a listing of about 3,000 qualified
applicants and [t]he average wait for applicants with preferences is about 24 months. At the
20 April 2015 City Council meeting, however, the AHA Director admitted to an effective three-
year waiting period.

There are not enough formal shelter beds available.

The general sheltersexcluding those specializing in specific sub-demographics such as
domestic violenceoffer a total of 691 beds.11 The existing general beds favor single males
over females and families. This is despite the fact that the constitution of the Albuquerque non-
housed population changed drastically in the early 1980s12 with women now comprising fifty
percent of non-housed people locally, many in family situations.13

9 A Community Response to Homelessness in Albuquerque 2013-2017; pp. 12 and 13.

10 bhc.state.nm.us

2013 Section 8 Housing Vouchers Waiting Lists, Preferences and Programs for New Mexico Public
Housing Authorities. Updated July 2013.
http://www.bhc.state.nm.us/pdf/NM%20Housing%20Auth%20%20Sec%208%20Waiting%20ListsPref_%20July%202013_
.pdf
11 Rescue Mission has 204; Good Shepherd 76; Opportunity Center 71; Joy Junction 300; and Barrett House 40. From
mid-November to mid-March, the Rescue Mission operates the Emergency Winter Shelter that offers additional beds.
12 Robertson, Michael Owen 1991 Interpreting Homelessness: The Influence of Professional and Non-Professional
Service Providers. Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development
20(2):141-153; p. 154.
13 Barrett Foundation website 2015.

Formal shelters do not answer the needs of all non-housed people.

The executive director of Healthcare for the Homeless (HCH) noted that, It is important to
listen to the people that live in these camps or consolidated places to see what purposes it
serves that institutions or other services dont. There are a lot of reasons why those
institutionalized settings [such as shelters] dont work for people.14 The National Alliance to
End Homelessness 2008-2009 research shows that almost 40% of non-housed people
preferred to not stay in shelters.15 The existing shelters will not accommodate people who are
inebriated or substance impaired.16 The existing shelter facilities all prohibit pets. The existing
shelters do not cater to individuals with disruptive mental conditions. Most of the existing
shelters do not offer a guarantee of more than one nights accommodation. Most of the existing
shelters do not afford clients with adequate privacy and personal security. Most of the existing
shelters do not accommodate the needs of transgendered people.

Non-housed people persist as a growing presence within

Albuquerque.
The Heading Home initiative has housed about 440 chronically homeless individuals since
2011;17 yet, 206 Albuquerque non-housed people died on streets since the beginning of 2011.18

14 2015

Albuquerque City Camping Issues Need Affordable Housing Solutions. http://www.abqhch.com/author/mudhouse/.

See also Parker, Stephen and Rodney Fopp 2004 Im the Slice of Pie thats Ostracised. Foucaults Technologies, and
Personal Agency, in the Voice of Women who are Homeless, Adelaide, South Australia. Housing, Theory, and Society
21:145-154.
15 Cited in Irvine 2013; p. 33.
16 In his commentary on Tent City residents, Jeremy Reynalds of Joy Junction said: some of the residents of Tent City
are active substance abusers, others have history of violence which would preclude them from staying at Joy
Junction, and some have mental health issues such as post traumatic stress and are unable to stay in a typically
crowded shelter environment (Joy Junction Blog 3 February 2015). While Dr. Reynalds comments do not represent
the demographic of residents of especially the later encampments, his points are still valid as to the at times
exclusionary nature of the existing local shelter system. While Dr. Reynalds is referring only to Joy Junction policies,
from our experience working with unhoused people, the same would apply to the other shelters.
17 Heading Home website; accessed 15 July 2015.
18 61 in 2014 (https://twitter.com/timholcombkrqe/status/546050649335418882); 39 in 2013
(http://www.abqjournal.com/324516/news/forgotten.html); 56 in 2012
(http://www.abqjournal.com/154893/news/we-remember.html); and 60 in 2011
(http://www.abqjournal.com/76794/news/for-the-departed.html). Figures for 2015 are not available.

CABQ tends to employ a policy of continually dispersing non-housed

people.
Non-housed people have to answer human needs such as elimination and basic hygiene but
Albuquerque does not address these very human needs. Non-housed people necessarily find ways
to meet these needs but the result is that, for instance, non-housed peoples need to eliminate
impacts the quality of living of housed people. CABQs policies of dispersal of non-housed people
and the citys dismissal of the human rights of non-housed people lead to the effective redefinition
of non-housed people as non-people. APDs public treatment of non-housed people aggravates this
othering.19 This othering of non-housed people influences the publics perception of non-housed
people as a scourge to be eradicated and this public perception leads to violence and abuse against
non-housed people.20 In July 2014, three Hispanic young men beat to death two sleeping Din nonhoused men in a deserted field in Northwest Albuquerque. The three young men admitted that they had
attacked some 50 other street people during the preceding twelve months.21 The Albuquerque Police
Department has been criticized internationally for the killing of a lone non-housed man who was guilty
of camping illegally in Copper Canyon in Northeast Albuquerque on 16 March 2014.22 Such
demeaning treatment of non-housed people goes against the grain of stabilizing people in order
for them to move towards qualifying for housing and the current situation increases the likelihood
of imprisonment for loitering, panhandling, or more serious infractions. The end result is that a
vicious cycle emerges regarding treatment, public perception, and non-housed responses.

19 Targeted: Prejudice and Racial Bias in the Albuquerque Police Department contains numerous testimonies from

people on the street; pp. 8-11.

20 Heading Home notes that in a survey of 1,300 chronically non-housed people in Albuquerque, three in five

reported having been assaulted at some point while living on the streets
(http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/us/violent-attacks-on-homeless-in-albuquerque-expose-citys-
ills.html?_r=0).
21 Estes, Nick 2014 You Try to Live Like MeLooking to Understand ABQs Homeless Natives. Indian Country 12
September 2014. http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/09/12/you-try-live-me-looking-understand-abqshomeless-natives-156853.
22 Pizzi, Michael 2014 Fatal Shooting of Homeless Man Prompts Outrage at Albuquerque Police. Aljazeera America 25
March 2014. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/25/fatal-shootingofhomelessmanpromptsoutrageatalbuquerquepolice.html and BBCtrending 2014 Police Under Fire for Shooting Homeless
Man. 26 March 2014. http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-26725455 among numerous other sources.

Motel vouchers are not a suitable stopgap.

The CABQ budget allowed for 1,615 motel voucher nights in 2011 and for 1,885 motel voucher
nights in 2012. HCH provided 455 nights to families with children and 360 nights to
individuals (600 nights to individuals had been approved) in 2011. The 2012 budget approved
HCH to provide 455 nights to families with children and 630 to individuals. St Martins
provided 1,650 motel voucher nights in 2011 (800 nights had been approved) to individuals
and for mental health. The 2012 budget approved St Martins to provide 800 nights to
individuals and for mental health. The actually distributed motel voucher nights for 2011
totaled 2,465. The excess was due to the impact of the blizzard weather. The actually
distributed motel voucher nights for 2012 are not recorded in the publicly accessible city
budgets. The number of budgeted motel voucher nights is not listed in the publicly available
budgets subsequent to 2012. The CABQ budgets for 2015 and 2016 in each case approve
$38,380 and $40,800 to HCH and St Martins respectively for motel vouchers.23

Even though motel vouchers allow non-housed people a

respite from extreme weather conditions, they facilitate only

limited stays.
We argue that motel vouchers do not carry long-term sustainable solutions and that the money
budgeted for motel vouchers can be better spent on longer-term and more sustainable
interventions. Non-housed people have explained to us how dispirited they feel when they
have to try and readjust to life on the street after staying in a motel. Dennis Plummer explains
that Heading Home endeavors to stabilize clients in motels on a voucher system immediately
before they are to be placed in housing but that alternative stable accommodation could be
feasible as well.24

23 These amounts are increases from the $29,000 and $36,000 budgeted for motel vouchers in 2014 for HCH and St

Martins respectively.

24 Personal interview 23 June 2015.

Admitting to the disparity between the increasing numbers

of non-housed people in Albuquerque and the shortfalls in
housing and shelter beds would open the way for finding
substantive and realistic solutions that would articulate
and supplement the existing care structure with innovative
alternative interim provisions.

Tent cities offer a cheap interim intervention.

Tent cities spring up organically around the nation to fill the gaps left by existing service
structures in the face of increasing budgetary shortfalls. The numerous tent encampments
throughout Albuquerque speak to the residents operational response to their experience of
these gaps. These encampments answer residents need for community and protection. We
acknowledge that tent cities are stereotyped as urban blight and, therefore, become a hard sell
even in the cases where progressive city leaders have sanctioned their existence. Yet, tents
remain the cheapest and quickest means of providing shelter to people who deserve and
require shelter but who cannot fit into the existing formal shelter paradigm. The existence of
an innovative multi-tiered plan that addresses the realities of the non-housed condition and,
therefore, includes the existence of an organized tent city would counter criticisms of such
permission

The dispersal of tent city residents does not disappear them.

The disbanding of encampments only serves to disrupt residents lives and set them
back in any of the efforts they have made to stabilize themselves and work on their
respective personal conditions.

We are proposing an organized and

permitted tent city to be the first step

in a broader re-articulation of the
existing provision structure.

Micro-housing provides a logical and easily integrated following step

to address the increasing need:funding shortfall disparity.
These tiny houses can be cheaply constructed and we have a professional design on hand for
a durable modular micro-house that can involve residents in its preparation.

Consequently, we are proposing that

micro-houses substitute for tents as
soon as funding allows.

10

The lack of housing is only one part of the overall non-housed

scenario.
Lack of skills and employment opportunities exacerbate the problem. Our Modern
Sharecropper proposal addresses the lack of long-term housing and development of skills
while providing employment opportunities, the integration into accepting and broadening
responsibilities, an increasing self-worth, and changing public perceptions.

Therefore, we are proposing the

Modern Sharecropper as the second

introductory tier.

Single Resident Occupancy hotels were phased out without being

replaced by viable and affordable alternatives.
A city-run motel, however, would fill this gap and be far more cost-effective than the current ad
hoc motel voucher system. It is not intended to supplant the need for emergency shelter but
would rather provide residents with a practice run in living on their own. We propose that
further vocational training be incorporated as a condition of residency in such a motel.

In our proposal, such a city-run motel

would provide the final preliminary step

to long-term affordable housing.

11