Proposal for funding to combat homelessness in Albuquerque

To: Albuquerque City council

From: Dominique Mitchell, Brandon Pompeo, David de Vos
English 219
Proposal
21 October 2016
Introduction
Over the last couple of years, homelessness has grown to be a prominent
issue within the Albuquerque community. Whether it's making national
headlines about new initiatives or being scrutinized because of police officer
shootings, homelessness is a major issue that this city faces. Besides costing
taxpayers a lot of money, it puts a huge strain on different families, social
agencies, and the individuals themselves.
When tasked with taking on homelessness, were faced with a wide array of
different challenges. Each person brings a unique back story with them so
theres not really one solution that fits all. While that holds true, there are
some certain aspects of homelessness that can be targeted and help reduce
the overall population. This can be broken down into five separate goals that
when completed, can have positive effects on the homeless population. By
focusing on affordable housing, improving health and stability, economic
security, crisis response system, and policies enacted by the government, we
can greatly reduce the homeless population and in turn, vastly improve the
economy for Albuquerque. We would like to ask for funding to get 200 people
off the streets and into houses the next year.
Problem Description
Homelessness is a huge issue that Albuquerque is battling. Each person
comes with their own set of personal and social circumstances which makes
attacking homelessness as a whole very challenging. The biggest cause
thats linked with homelessness is poverty, in which Albuquerque is currently
ranked the fifth highest in the nation. Nearly 1 in every 5 people living in
New Mexico is below the poverty line with an income of $10,400 or less a
year. This is big because most of the homeless in Albuquerque are long-time
New Mexico residents. Around 68% of homeless people are between the ages
of 40-60. (1) Another big component to homelessness is finding good
affordable housing. Albuquerque currently has plans in place to help increase
the amount of cheap housing in the community but its been a very slow
process so far.

While the impact that homelessness has on the community may not be
easily visible, it is playing a big role in society and tax burdens. Tax dollars
are the first thing that probably comes to mind when thinking about what
homelessness has cost the city of Albuquerque. When a homeless person is
admitted to a hospital, they stay on average an extra four days compared to
the non-homeless. This equates to around an extra $2400 per trip which is a
direct cost to the public. The rate of psychiatric hospitalization for homeless
people are also 100 times higher than the non-homeless. Depending on the
problem, the prices can range from $150 a day to over $1000. This cost is
also coming directly from the taxpayers. (2)
There are numerous other things that homeless have a higher rate of, such
as incarceration, that all end up costing us money out of our pockets.
Besides costs, homelessness also has a lasting effect on families and the
individual themselves. Whether it's just a short term thing or shaping up to
be long term, being homeless can completely change families or individuals.
This also can lead to mental health problems which get us right back to
paying for all their medical bills.

Overall, the homelessness population in Albuquerque seems to be on a

decreasing trend over the years. This is a great sign but these numbers dont
completely represent all of the homeless living here. To count the population,
people drive around for one day and count all the homeless people they can
find. They add all the numbers up and post it as the current homeless
population. This means that all the people they didnt see arent accounted
for, so the population is probably higher than reported. This probably doesnt
affect the trends too much though so it's a good sign that they are on a
downward slope. The number of homeless people is still too high, so there is
a lot of work that still needs to be done.
Solutions:
There are five goals that we must achieve to have a significant impact on the
homelessness in our community. The goals included to increase access to
safe, high quality and affordable housing, improve health and stability,
increase economic security, rebuild the homeless crisis response system,
and to create the community and political needed to end homelessness.
Goal one is to increase access to safe, high quality and affordable housing.
This will help the elimination of homelessness by being able to offer
affordable and safe housing. In Albuquerque, the loss of affordable housing
stock and the limited capacity among nonprofit organizations to develop
housing, few resources for affordable housing development and the barriers
to housing access for low-income residents all create significant obstacles to
increasing the availability of affordable housing. Housing the homeless is the
first priority that needs to be done and is the most effective approach to
helping families and individuals obtain and remain in permanent housing.
Goal two is to improve health and stability. This is needed because to remain
in housing people require a wide range of services which include medical
care and resources. Many people can manage just fine with little support, but

some may need additional help through short-term, emergency crisis

systems. While some people need long-term ongoing support.
Most people experiencing homelessness do not have access to affordable
medical care. There are many services and supports that help people stay
housed and obtain affordable medical care. The expansion of Medicaid to all
adults will help create new opportunities to connect homeless individuals and
families to supportive services, behavioral health care and medical care they
need to obtain and remain in housing.
Goal three is to improve economic security. This is needed because people
that are unable to pay their debts increase the number of homelessness
people. Some people are working 40 hours a week or more and still dont
earn enough money to afford safe and adequate housing. People that dont
work but are receiving disability benefits can still not afford the lowest
market rentals because their benefits are too low. To solve this problem
Albuquerques minimum wage has to be raised so that it is equal to or
greater than the housing wage and access to high wage/high skill jobs has to
be increased.
Goal four is to rebuild the homeless crisis response system. To end
homelessness in Albuquerque people experiencing homelessness and those
who are at high risk of becoming homeless must be able to access help
immediately. It can be difficult to obtain help and can be frustrating for
people that are experiencing homelessness or those at risk of homelessness.
To avoid these problems, we must increase prevention and rapid rehousing
resources, increase and maximize utilization of the Homeless Management
Information System, and ensure that people experiencing homelessness
have a safe place to stay until they obtain permanent housing.
Goal five is to build the community and the political will to end
homelessness. Having strong community support for policies and programs
that can help end homelessness is important. A strongly committed
community mobilized to end homelessness will provide our leaders with the
support they need to take bold steps forward. Without the support from the
community, homelessness may not be considered a serious enough problem
to require an urgent, coordinated response and the number of people
experiencing homelessness will continue to grow. The main goal here is to
design a caring energy in our community so that we can continue to
implement solutions to end homelessness. We need to educate key
stakeholders and elected officials about homelessness and to develop a
public information campaign to educate the public about homelessness.
Qualifications
We are representing the organization Albuquerque Heading Home.
Albuquerque heading home is a subdivision of a New Mexican organization
called Heading Home. You have maybe heard of the organization, as we have

already hosted a lot of events in and around the city to raise money to
combat homelessness in Albuquerque. We were founded in 2011 when the
city government started an initiative to combat homelessness in
Albuquerque and since then we took off. We also help to house veterans in
New Mexico. A few statistics about our organization are provided below.
Momentarily we are hosting a fundraiser in barbershops where 20% of the
cost to cut your hair goes to our organization.
Currently, there is also a smaller project being funded by the government
and run by us to find the 75 most vulnerable homeless people in
Albuquerque. This project was founded because the most vulnerable
homeless people can rack up enormous bills at hospitals, prisons, and
emergency rooms. And these bills are directly transferred to the taxpayers
pocket, as these homeless people can not pay the bills. The most famous
example of this is Murray Barr, an alcoholic homeless man in Reno, Nevada,
who ran up a bill of more than $1 million in 10 years at a single hospital. This
was eventually all paid for by the taxpayers, so we already have gotten
permission from the government to run this project to find and help the most
vulnerable people to help them improve their lives and save money.
We have been doing a lot of work since 2011 when we were first founded by
Mayor Berry and a few hundreds of passionate volunteers who wanted to
help on the streets and make sure that everybody in Albuquerque is better
off. Since then we have housed 610 individuals and their families in
permanent housing. And as you can see on the graph on page two, this
accounts for many of the then homeless population; about 15%. Now, as we
have also said, the statistics on the homeless population arent entirely
correct, but it still gives a good idea about what we have done the last
couple of years.
Something else thats important to us is retention rate. This means that once
we get people off of the streets and into houses, we want to keep them off
the streets. This has been working pretty well thus far, as we have 94%
annual retention rate. This means that 94% of the people we got off the
streets are still not homeless after 12 full months. (3)
So, as you can see, we have been doing a lot of work these last 5 years, and
we have been successful in finding solutions to eliminate homelessness. But
there is always more to be done, and this is why we are coming to you for
help. This brings us to the next part, what are the costs going to be, and
what are the benefits of our program and what we do.
Cost/Benefit
Over the years, we have seen and calculated that the average cost to house
someone for a year is $6,500. Furthermore, it costs another $1,500 to help
the person move in and get deeply discounted furniture, so they dont live in

a completely bare house. So, this amounts to $8,000 dollar a year to house
an individual and maybe the accompanying family. (3)
Those were the costs of housing homeless people, what we will talk about
now are the financial benefits of housing homeless people. Multiple studies
over the years have proven that it costs the taxpayer and therefore the
government a lot more money to not help people on the streets than house
them. A study conducted by the University of New Mexicos Social Research
institute found that investing in the Albuquerque Heading home project
creates a 78% return and has saved the city more than $5 million in taxpayer
money the last 5 years. So, its beneficial to invest in Albuquerque Heading
home and getting homeless people off the streets. (3)
Something else that may benefit the city itself from solving the
homelessness in Albuquerque is that it would clean up the citys image.
Momentarily, Albuquerque has a pretty bad reputation when it comes to
cleanliness and homelessness, especially around Central. If this project keeps
on being successful as it momentarily is, that image may slowly become a
thing of the past and that might attract more tourism to Albuquerque. Which
in turn would increase profits for the city, which in turn would lead to more
wealth for everybody as there is more to spread around.
Furthermore, there are also multiple studies that suggest that homeless
people are more likely to commit crimes because they are desperate for
money. So, if we could solve this problem, the crime rates in Albuquerque
might also go down. (4)
Each year we set a certain goal for how many people we want to be housed
by December of the following year. The last few years we have reached
these goals pretty easily, but for 2017, wed like to aim higher than ever
before. Until this point, weve gotten an average of about 100 people a year
off the streets. This is pretty decent, but for next year, wed like to get 200
people off the streets while still keeping the retention rate as high as before.
This will cost about $1,600,00. But with the help of our other key sponsors,
supporters, and individual donations, we like to think that we would manage
with financial support in the form of $1,000,000.
So, therefore we write to you as the Albuquerque City Council because we
feel that our interests are closely tied to yours, and in the end, this project
would be beneficial to the city and the people that live here.
Thank you very much for your attention and time. If you need any extra
information or if you have any remarks, you can reach us at
headinghome@gmail.com.

Work Cited
(1)"About Homelessness." New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Oct.
2016.
(2)"Homelessness Facts St. Martin's Hospitality Center." St Martins Hospitality Center. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2016.
(3)"The Effects of Homelessness on Society." Our Everyday Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2016.
(4)Mont, Sion Joseph. HOMELESSNESS (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
(5)"News." Albuquerque Heading Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2016.