City of Albuquerque facing lawsuit over injustice towards homeless

By Breana Albizu

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    ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (KOAT) — Several organizations are suing the city of Albuquerque for violating the civil rights of the homeless population.

The law firm of Ives and Flores, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, and attorney Nick Davis filed a lawsuit on Monday on behalf of unhoused people living in Albuquerque. The groups said they want to stop city officials from unlawfully destroying encampments and property, jailing, and fining people.

“These are people who live in this community, who are human beings and who deserve some dignity and respect,” Maria Martinez Sanchez, the legal director at ACLU-NM, said.

According to organizational leaders, the lawsuit has been years in the making.

The groups said they’ve been working to challenge Albuquerque’s tactics when it comes to dealing with the city’s most vulnerable population.

In the nearly 50-page document, ACLU-NM and others make several allegations against Duke City. From a lack of affordable housing to adequate shelter space.

“We all are seeing rents rising around us, whether it’s our own family members, friends, [or] people,” Martinez Sanchez said. “So many people cannot afford the rising rents in this community.”

The lawsuit also mentioned Albuquerque’s Westside Shelter, which is located along Jim McDowell Road Martinez Sanchez said conditions there are unsafe, unhealthy, and unfit for human habitation.

“To put it bluntly, [it’s] disgusting. It’s uninhabitable. People are stolen from on a frequent basis,” she said.

Scott Yelton couldn’t agree more.

For the Albuquerque resident, it’s been a rough three years. Yelton no longer had a home in September 2019 after he lost his job and separated from his wife.

Despite looking for housing jobs, he ended up at the Westside Shelter. He said the place was anything but welcoming. He resided there for less than a year.

“It’s horrible. It’s dirty. It’s not safe,” Yelton said. “It can be a very enabling environment. There’s cronyism involved. It’s just bad on many levels. It’s not healthy.”

He then moved on to Coronado Park, where he temporarily lived among others in the downtown area. The Albuquerque resident said he felt safer at the open space than at the shelter.

“There’s a [group] of people you trust. You can go take a shower, [and] when you come back, [your] stuff is going to be there,” Yelton said.

Yet everything changed on Aug. 17 after city authorities physically removed him from the park.

He also said his belongings were thrown out.

“It was taken. The city rolled up in a garbage truck and threw it in the back,” Yelton said. “I got back in time to stop them, but they wouldn’t [give it to me]. They threw it in and just kept moving.”

Martinez Sanchez said the incident only ramped up efforts to file legal action against the city.

“Coronado Park just provided an opportunity for us to challenge the city’s way of addressing homelessness in this community,” she said.

In the meantime, Yelton is having better days. As of Wednesday, he has temporary housing at an undisclosed location.

While he’s looking forward to a brighter future, he also is pushing for city leaders to provide solutions and resources to those homeless.

“Don’t victimize the homeless for being homeless or criminals. It’s not fair,” Yelton said.

The city of Albuquerque has since responded to the lawsuit. Read their full statement below:

“The City and our partner organizations conducted weeks of intensive outreach, service offerings and notice, prior to closing Coronado Park. 72 people were connected to services, including local shelters, motel vouchers, pathways to permanent housing, personal storage, and medical treatment. Coronado Park had become a hub for narcotic usage, trafficking and organized crime. Closing the park was the right thing to do. People living there deserved better, safer alternatives, and connecting people with the help they needed was our priority. The City is investing more money than ever in solutions to reduce chronic homelessness and create affordable housing.”

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