Albuquerque has seen a growth in homelessness in the streets because of mental health issues and trauma.

Shelters said they were used less during the summer.

“We’re talking about the number of people experiencing homelessness who are not using shelters so who are staying outside in unsheltered locations,” Lisa Huval, housing and homeless deputy director, said to KRQE. “This is a count that we work with the Coalition to End Homelessness that we do every two years at the end of January.”

Businesses and the city have made moves to deter homeless people from entering their property. For example, the city placed “lava rocks by the tracks downtown to chase the encampments away,” according to KRQE. Actions against the homeless community are growing.

“There’s been a high increase and high demand for more fencing in the city,” Vince Frenes, fencing manager for B&B Construction & ABQ, told the station. “There’s been a fluctuation of crime, there’s a lot of break-ins due to the homeless around here, and I feel that that’s a corresponding sentiment to local businesses.”

If businesses can’t use fences, some play loud music nonstop outside.

Over the last five years, the number of people living on the street went from nearly 200 to 400 in Albuquerque, according to a report by the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness.

The report found there to be 412 that were living on the street, in alleys or along parkways when a count was done this past Jan. 25.

The report data shows that 30% of homeless surveyed have mental illness and 25% struggle with substance abuse.

The coalition is worried the rise in the cost of living could drive more people to homelessness. New Mexico law prohibits rent control, meaning renters have full freedom to set their prices.

“If rents keep rising at the rates that they have since the beginning of 2020, there’s going to be nowhere to go for working class people like me. Homelessness will be on the rise,” Bex Hampton, Peoples Housing Project group organizer, told KRQE.