ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Homelessness is a crisis that touches every corner of New Mexico. “We’re not talking about just something that occurs in Albuquerque or Santa Fe,” said Patrick Allen, Secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health.
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In front of the legislative Health and Human Services Committee on Monday morning, NMDOH updated lawmakers on its Mobile Homelessness Response Demonstration Project. For the project, the state invested $4 million to partner with community organizations and build mobile responses in rural New Mexico, across 19 counties.
“In no way is talking about mobile outreach intended to be our end all be all in this is how we end homelessness in New Mexico. this is how we deal with a slice of it that we think is important,” said Secretary Allen.
Through the project, organizations were able to meet with more than 3,000 individuals to provide services. San Juan County Partnership is just one of the participating groups and said through the funding, it was able to set up a mobile office, buy a wheelchair-accessible van, and to a second vehicle that can go over rural terrain to reach individuals.
“It really allowed us to have a greater reach for longer periods of time and get to people who are not getting seen for services,” said Anna Krutsky, Executive Director of San Juan County Partnership. In a quote used in the presentation to lawmakers, San Juan County said the people they reach in the mobile space are the most vulnerable and are folks they would not necessarily have known of because they are hiding in order to protect themselves.
San Juan County Partnership was able to build relationships with the unhoused and provide medical resources. A group in Santa Fe used the funding to bring mobile showers to the unhoused and provide hygiene supplies. The Kewa Family Wellness Center in Bernalillo and Santa Fe Counties provided a number of services including opioid education and connected people with tribal-specific resources.
“This funding enabled us to reach more people,” said Krustsky. “Mobile access to the community so that was probably the biggest step up that we ever had.”
The project included a collaboration with the University of New Mexico to survey the unhoused community and put together their findings. NMDOH Secretary Allen said there are resources to continue funding the project and that they are working with the governor’s office on the budget.