Robert Hilgendorn should be living out his senior years in peace and tranquility. Instead, he spends most of his days looking out of a window in his apartment at a growing number of homeless encampments.
Hilgendorn lives in the senior apartment complex at Ed Romero Terrace in the heart of Albuquerque's International District. The homeless situation has never been as bad as it is now, and things appear to be getting worse.
"You see homeless encampments,” Hilgendorn told KOAT recently. “They burn fires. They distribute drugs out there, prostitution. There's shootings and stabbings. It's just an ongoing thing.”
Then he added, “Hopefully they can get something done.”
Hilgendorn was referring to City officials, who have struggled to find solutions to the growing homeless crisis. Last month, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller announced the closing of Coronado Park because of the violence and crime associated with a homeless encampment there.
The number of homeless has grown so much that the sidewalks outside of Hilgendorn’s residence are now unusable.
"There was a man that lived here and he had to move out because he liked walking around the neighborhood and he had a walker,” Hilgendorn told KOAT. ”He had to walk out into the street because he couldn't get down the sidewalk.”
Keller has vowed that the City will start increasing sidewalk encampment enforcement.
"It's an ADA issue,” Keller said. “It is too dangerous to camp on a sidewalk for people trying to use the sidewalk."
Hilgendorn has been frustrated in his attempts to get the city to do something.
"It takes 10 to 15 minutes to get a response,” he said. “And then they ask you a thousand questions. It's just idiotic.”
Hilgendorn said crews do show up to clean, but the situation quickly deteriorates once the crews leave.
"They clean it up the best they can do, then two or three hours later, the shopping carts are full and they're down the street and then they come back," he said.
In the last 18 months, over 11,500 calls have come in to 311 about homeless camps in Albuquerque.
