ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – In an effort to curb homelessness in the metro, a city councilor is pushing a new pilot program that would provide jobs to those experiencing homelessness- but it will need city council approval before the work begins. “If we’re able to help just a few people I think it’s well worth doing,” said city councilor Renee Grout, sponsor of the program.

Councilor Grout is spearheading the push to bring temporary day jobs to people experiencing homelessness. She expects to introduce it at the city council meeting Monday evening. “It might be the next step in finding them a full-time job,” Grout explained.

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It’s not the first time the city has tried to implement a program like this. Back in 2015, the “There’s a Better Way” program provided over 6,000 jobs for the homeless. Councilor Grout hopes her proposed program can do the same. “We get people back to work, we get people excited about the program, feeling good about themselves,” Councilor Grout added.

If approved by city council, the proposed pilot program would be created under the Health, Housing, and Homelessness Department.

We know that many people are experiencing homelessness due to economic factors, which is why programs to help job seekers get back on their feet are an important part of our system of care, and why we’ve built in job support for clients at the Gateway Center. The City has been working with community partners like Heading Home and their Job Connect program and UA Local 412’s apprenticeship readiness program to offer pathways to full time work. We are reviewing Councilor Grout’s resolution and look forward conversations with the Council about the best way to connect people to employment opportunities.

City of Albuquerque Health, Housing & Homelessness Department

Councilor Grout says she is waiting to see if the program is approved to figure out how much it would cost, and how long it would run for. She added that operating the program for a minimum of six months is a good start, arguing this would give time to study how effective it has been. “We want to be measuring it as we’re going along so we can get that data, see what works,” Councilor Grout said.

The city last week said more than 60% of the homeless refuse any services or help. When asked about this, Councilor Grout says she’s well aware that not everyone may welcome their assistance. “Yes, there are lots of people that all they want to do is their drugs and that’s it, and that’s sad,” Councilor Grout explained. “But I know there’s a lot of people, I’m sure there’s a lot of people that would like to go back to work.”

If city council approves the proposal, the Health, Housing, and Homelessness Department would have 60 days to create a plan and budget for the program. Grout says there are always openings for city jobs in Parks and Recreation, and Solid Waste. She believes the homeless could fill these openings.

A group of people from several city departments would be in charge of conducting studies on the program. Once the pilot is complete, a decision would be made to keep it, scrap it, or expand the project.

The City of Albuquerque hosted a celebration for the recently crowned champions of the Mountain West men’s basketball tournament this past Thursday, April 11.

Mayor Tim Keller and the men’s basketball team came out to greet and spend time with the fans.

Keller presented two trophies to the Lobos: a golden Lobo hand and the official winning basketball. Keller spoke about what the accomplishment meant, not only to the fans, but to the city itself.

“Everyday is a great day to be a Lobo, but it’s really special this year,” Keller said. “It’s our first Mountain West Championship in 10 years. We also had an amazing start to the season. All the home games were sold out if not close. Most importantly, for those of us who have been around a long time, when the Lobos rise and win, it brings our whole city together like no other.”

With the men’s basketball season coming to a close, changes to the team next year hang in the air. The backcourt will be broken up by Jaelen House using his final year of eligibility to play and Jamal Mashburn Jr. entering the transfer portal.

Head Coach Richard Pitino praised the Lobo fans for their support over the season, and throughout his three years as head coach.

“There was one reason why I came here three years ago, and that is because we believe we have one of the best fan bases in all of college basketball,” Pitino said.

Around a hundred fans were at the event and got to spend time with the Lobos, getting their custom-made T-shirts and basketballs signed by the players and coaches.

Supporters of the University of New Mexico basketball team for over 40 years, Gary and Marla Dyer buy season tickets and travel with the Lobos every year to Las Vegas to watch the Mountain West tournament.

“(Neither of us are) UNM alumni. We’ve been very athletic our whole lives, and in the 1980s started watching Lobo basketball and have watched every year since,” Gary Dyer said. “We’re really glad that (the men’s team) got to win the championship this year. They deserve it.”

In celebration of the team’s accomplishment, Keller announced that the new indoor track at the Albuquerque Convention Center will hang banners for all UNM sports accomplishments – the first for the men’s Mountain West 2024 title.

“For the city, it’s amazing to see how the Lobos lift us up in a way that nothing else really does,” Keller said. “And for myself personally, as someone who’s followed them my whole life, it’s really special to now be mayor and congratulate them on their accomplishment.”

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Pitino also talked about what it meant for himself and the team to have the city host an event for them.

“It’s great to have the city show the support that it has today. We know that the Lobos are important to the city, and to the state and to see that turn out here today at the airport and in The Pit – that’s what drives these guys,” Pitino said.

Pitino also expressed his joy in the progress that the program has had in the last three years since he arrived, saying that it’s been great, but there's still more progress to be made.

“We won the Mountain West title, won 26 games in the season, so now our goal is to win the regular season title and hopefully be able to advance in the NCAA tournament – which are both hard things to do,” Pitino said.

BillyJack Davidson is a beat reporter at the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @BillyJackDL

BillyJack Davidson

BillyJack Davidson is a beat reporter at the Daily Lobo. He can be reached on Twitter @BillyJackDL

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A troublesome park in the International District could soon be getting a makeover in hopes of giving families in the area a safe place to gather. “The community center here is very vibrant, very well-used, people love their community center,” said Albuquerque City Councilor Nichole Rogers.

A popular community center is butted up to what Rogers believes is a neglected city park in her district. “We need to start treating the grass we need to start you know doing other little things that I see happening in other areas,” said Rogers.

Mesa Verde Park on Marquette and Pennsylvania has become an eyesore. It has drawn complaints from neighbors over problems like graffiti, and homeless encampments. Back in 2019 staff at the park were doing daily sweeps to clean up needles littered on the ground.

The constant complaints grabbed Rogers’s attention and now she wants to help make some changes. “It’s important to me because it’s important to the people that surround this area,” said Rogers.

The city received some state funding for a remodel project last legislative session and Rogers is now suggesting the Parks and Rec Department apply for a federal grant to help get the job done. “Those kids deserve nice things too and so we should have that,” said Rogers.

If awarded, the money would allow them to create recreational sports areas for soccer and pickleball, replace old equipment, improve landscaping, and even add a dog park. “We’ll keep the basketball courts because the community really loves the basketball courts, so we’ll just freshen that up,” said Rogers.

But will a few cosmetic upgrades solve the problem? Rogers thinks it’s a good first step. “Why do we want to clean up the parks there they are just going to get messed up right? But that’s the wrong mentality to have I think that the dis-investment in this park is what caused the problem to be a problem,” said Rogers.

If approved, Rogers says they’ll do construction in phases and the work should take about a year to complete.

In what's become a running theme this season, Albuquerque gave their fans yet another huge win in Saturday's second game. They beat the Capital Jaguars by the very same score they won with in their prior game: 17-2. The victory was nothing new for Albuquerque as they're now sitting on six straight.

Raquel Waldrop made a splash while hitting and pitching. On the mound, she tossed four innings while giving up just two earned runs off four hits (she also only allowed one walk). Waldrop was even better at the plate, going 1-for-2 with a home run and four RBI. She is on a roll when it comes to RBI, as she's now brought in four or more in the last four games she's played.

In other batting news, Albuquerque got a massive performance out of Honey Fields, who got on base in all three of her plate appearances with a home run and two RBI. Another player making a difference was Naiyoki Wright, who went 2-for-2 with three runs, a triple, and an RBI.

On Capital's side, Brooklyn Cardenas was cooking despite her team's loss, going 2-for-2 with a home run. The team also got some help courtesy of Layla Toya, who went 1-for-2 with a home run.

Albuquerque's win was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 15-5. Those good results were due in large part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 16.0 runs per game. As for Capital, they now have a losing record at 9-10.

Albuquerque will head out on the road to square off against Rio Grande at 10:00 a.m. in Saturday's first game. One thing working in Albuquerque's favor is that they have posted big run totals in their last four matchups. As for Capital, they will be playing in front of their home fans against Los Lunas at 3:00 p.m. in Friday's first game.

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Apr. 14—Bernalillo County's Youth Services Center is the largest juvenile detention center in the state. Along with detaining youth from Bernalillo County, the detention center accepts children from other counties and pueblos in the state.

The Journal sat down with Deputy Director of Operations Stanley Gray and Deputy Director of Administration Carmela Romero to discuss trends and programming at the detention facility.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What's the biggest challenge of running a facility like this?

Gray: I think our biggest challenge as of late has been staffing, but it's definitely improved tremendously.

You want to be able to help kids. ... Sometimes they're not ready for that yet. But understand that whatever message you're now delivering to them, you're planting that seed.

Romero: Because I provide oversight to behavioral health and the medical portion of it, it really is getting kids that care that they may not have had. ... For us, I think a lot of our kids have been lacking access to the medical mental health care that they need.

Q: Can you tell me how the medically assisted treatment for kids dealing with opioid addiction works?

Romero: As the youth come into the detention facility during booking, they meet with the medical department. They conduct screening and assessments. ... The (University of New Mexico) Adobe program and our medical staff will come in and work with the youth on their medication, assuring that they're assisting them during that time if they're coming off of drugs and making sure that their care in their everyday is being met... We will take the kids to receive the suboxone at the UNM Adobe clinic.

Adobe has what they call navigators, case management, so if they know a youth is going to go back into the community, we'll coordinate care. ... But also, they assist with the navigation on getting back in school, looking at other case management needs, or even treating the family as a whole.

Q: Is there anything that you want the public to understand about what kind of school kids who are held here have access to?

Romero: A lot of our kids are in credit recovery. Many youth were not consistently attending school. And if they were, they come in here, and they're able to just kind of move forward with their education. ... But the credit recovery portion, the ability to actually come in, receive credits, get one-on-one instruction, is phenomenal. A lot of other facilities across the state, they do credit recovery on the computer. ...

When they leave the facility, if they go back into the community, into APS schools, the families are able to get the transcripts and transfer those credits to other schools.

Q: You're a short-term facility, but you're seeing more and more kids dealing with longer case processes. Can you tell me about what's happening there?

Gray: We have an influx of individuals that are currently alleged to have committed some adult charges that are now staying for longer periods of time. We were built to be a short-term, where a lot of those kids were only supposed to be here an average length of stay back in 2019, at around 14 days.

Now, for that to be 60 (days), it's one of those things for us to now try to figure out what are some different programming we can do pertaining to those particular youth.

Q: Do you have staff vacancies that you're trying to fill?

Gray: We do currently have vacancies. We've improved tremendously over the past three months. We've had two classes already that have been graduated. ... And we have another class that just started yesterday. ... Within a four-month period, for us to now potentially have 50 more individuals, and they're all motivated. ... So we do currently have vacancies and we are actively hiring.

Romero: We've added a six-week academy for new hires. We went from four to six weeks, which is a tremendous help, and in addition to that, we've instituted a formal graduation. ... It's really changed dynamics and folks who already had the heart of coming here, but then even more so, they have this pride about the work that they're doing.

Q: There was the incident in the facility in December (On Christmas Day, there was a five-hour disturbance at the juvenile detention facility, when some of the youth refused to return to their cells).

Has the facility changed anything that it's doing since that incident?

Gray: We really had to look internally and try to find out for ourselves, what can we do to improve? ... So yes, we have made changes. Obviously, laundry has been a kind of a big thing. .... Little things like ... toothpaste. Yes, this toothpaste wasn't bad. Is there any issue with it? No. But there's something little that we can implement to assist the kids while they're here.

Romero: We've been working on a correctional plan. In addition to that, Stanley and I have met with many of the youth. We'll go from unit to unit. What do you guys need? ... The voice and choice of young people and having them being part of that process really lends to them feeling like they're being heard.