The Santa Barbara Martineztown Neighborhood Association (SBMTNA) was told that Albuquerque city officials attended a westside neighborhood meeting and informed them about providing homeless outdoor spaces in or near their area and the Martineztown Santa Barbara boundaries at 1250 Menaul NE. This location is at the corner of Menaul NE and the Frontage Road. This news was disturbing because city officials never approached us to discuss this proposal.
The SBMTNA opposes any more homeless outdoor spaces, services and programs in and around our neighborhood. The institutional racism toward the Martineztown Santa Barbara Neighborhood needs to stop.
The association has been discriminated against by the City when it comes to providing the single-family dwellings the correct R-1 zoning, preserving our historical residential single-family dwellings, programs and services for the youth and elderly in the neighborhood, and providing decent housing without the crowding of population in one area. Additionally efforts for clean air are ignored by the continuation of increasing pollution from the cumulation of crematories in and near the neighborhood which is already polluted from the freeways.
The City has many services for the homeless in our neighborhood. The homeless come from all over the city and even outside of the city. The City of Albuquerque needs to provide these services throughout the city and include behavior and mental health programs.
The department of Community Policing reports increases in burglaries and auto thefts every month at the association's board meetings. The Second Presbyterian provides Family Promise at 812 Edith NE - a shelter that has brought destruction to the property and crime to the neighborhood. The City has located the Center for Family and Adolescent, an addiction clinic at 707 Broadway NE, across the street the homeless have made Fruit NE their home.
Neighbors who once lived at Arno NE, Placido Martinez and Marble NE have moved out due to the increase in homeless coming all hours of night to their homes. There is Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless Resource Center at 1220 1st Street NE, and homeless services and programs from 1st to 6th street. These services have increased the crime in the area and we want it stopped. The police report every month there is very little they can do.
Santa Barbara Park at 1300 Edith NE has been destroyed multiple times. If the association was not on top of the issue, the park would be completely destroyed. San Ignacio Catholic church and the nearby school have had their windows broken and the property burglarized. At one time, this was unheard of, now it is an everyday occurrence. The neighborhood has never been so unsafe.
Behavioral and Mental Health exists in all families. The Martineztown Santa Barbara Neighborhood should not be targeted to care for the whole city of Albuquerque.
SBMTNA does not want homeless outdoor spaces or any more programs and services near or in our neighborhood. The SBMTNA opposes the outdoor shelter at 1250 Menaul NE.
Loretta Naranjo Lopez is the president of the Santa Barbara Martineztown Neighborhood Association and long-time resident of Albuquerque.
