On June 6, members of the the public testified before the Albuquerque City Council in opposition to several Integrated Development Ordinance Amendments centered around the issue of the rising homeless population in the city and where the homeless are allowed to stay.
Larry Sonntag, a retired Albuquerque police officer, testified on the dangers that allowing homeless tent camps around the city would present.
Sonntag explained the issues of combining homeless populations that deal with substance dependency and those struggling with mental health issues. By combining these populations, he said crime rates and violence among the homeless will amplify.
“Encouraging and enabling homeless camps to expand across the entire city is not going to be helpful,” he said.
"According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 20 to 25% of the homeless population in the United States suffers from some form of severe mental illness," a report from the National Coalition for the Homeless said. "In comparison, only 6% of Americans are severely mentally ill (National Institute of Mental Health, 2009)."
In Albuquerque, mental health issues among the homeless are believed to be even more frequent. A University of New Mexico (UNM) study said the percentage of chronically homeless persons in Albuquerque that suffer from severe mental illness is 75% higher than the national average.
"In Albuquerque, the Coalition to End Homelessness indicates approximately 38% of people who are unsheltered and chronically homeless have a serious mental illness," the UNM report said. "36% (chronically homeless persons) have a substance use disorder, and there are no clear data on co-occurrence (substance abuse and mental health disorders) of these conditions."
The percentage of homeless persons in Albuquerque who abuse drugs is also much higher than the national average. A recent American Addiction Centers report noted that 26% of chronically homeless persons have a substance abuse disorder.
