The Santa Barbara Martineztown Neighborhood Association has appealed to the city of Albuquerque's fast-track approval of a homeless encampment.
"The City of Albuquerque has a long history of establishing homeless camps in and around our neighborhood with no end in sight," the association said in a news release. " The City has failed to protect the health, safety and welfare of the residents."
The city fast-tracked and approved an application by Dawn Legacy Pointe for a "Safe Outdoor Space" permit to establish and operate a tent camp for the homeless within the neighborhood.
"Mayor Tim Keller, City Councilor President Issac Benton, and their cronies have created a dysfunctional city and want to continue to destroy our city by encouraging the establishment of drug-invested tent encampments," the neighborhood association said in the news release. "The City is moving forward on Safe Outdoor Spaces thus perpetuating a history of systemic racism in the planning, zoning, and siting of this project in a community of color. The SBMTNA is outraged that we were never informed that the City planned to approve a ‘Safe Outdoor Space’ tent encampment in our neighborhood at 1250 Menaul Blvd NE. We are here today to say “No to Safe Outdoor Spaces” and “No to the Perpetuation of Systemic Racism in the Planning, Zoning, and Siting of another tent city in a Working-Class Community of Color!”
As a neighborhood association representing the residents of the directly affected area, the SBMTNA is entitled to appeal the Planning Department’s decision according to the city’s Integrated Development Ordinance (IDO) code. The IDO also requires that a hearing must be held within 30 days after an appeal is filed.
The SBMTNA’s appeal against Dawn Legacy Pointe’s ‘Safe Outdoor Space’ (SOS) application raises several issues, not the least of which highlight the lack of transparency and due process extended to the public and the impacted communities. The appeal contends that by failing to follow established policies required for the approval of applications relating to ‘special’ or ‘conditional’ use zoning the City and the applicant ultimately acted in bad faith by “unilaterally” reviewing and approving Dawn Legacy Pointe’s application ”behind closed doors” without notice to the public and without the required opportunity for public input. The appeal also claims the City extended “preferential treatment” and gave “insider information” to Brad Day and Dawn Legacy Pointe while not affording the same to other SOS applicants.
The City of Albuquerque has a fraught history with the Martineztown neighborhood. According to a 2018 complaint filed with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) against the City, Martineztown has suffered through a “long-standing history” of “disproportionate and detrimental” discrimination at the hands of the City of Albuquerque’s zoning.
The New Mexico Sun previously reported that days after the city of Albuquerque began accepting applications for safe outdoor spaces, the newly formed Dawn Legacy Pointe proposed an encampment at 1250 Menaul NE, a parcel just west of Interstate 25 within the Martineztown neighborhood. Following the news of the proposed encampment, the Santa Barbara Martineztown Neighborhood Association sent a letter to Family and Community Services Director Carol Pierce expressing outrage as the proposal was not discussed with them. “The Santa Barbara Martineztown Neighborhood Association (SBMTNA) was informed that you 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 Frontage Road. This news was disturbing because your office has never approached us to discuss this proposal.”
Albuquerque commercial real estate developer, Brad Day, has taken a special interest in pushing the "safe outdoor space" homeless encampment scheme for months. Despite not being listed on any of the corporate documents of Dawn Legacy Pointe or Street Safe New Mexico (the non-profit listed as fiscally sponsoring DLP), Day’s name appears several times on the 1250 Menaul ‘safe outdoor space’ application.
According to the City Planning Department’s instructions for a ‘special’ or ‘conditional’ use (like SOS) as well as other SOS applications received, applicants are required to notify neighborhood stakeholders of their application to allow for public notice and hearings. However, Lopez and the members of the SBMTNA never received any notification from Dawn Legacy Pointe or Safe Streets New Mexico regarding their pending application to place a homeless encampment in their neighborhood.
Following an August 11 meeting between local Santa Barbra Martineztown leaders and city officials which included commercial real estate developer and ‘safe outdoor space’ advocate Day, where Day and officials informed the group that the Dawn Legacy Pointe encampment application had already been approved, SBMTNA President Loretta Naranjo Lopez told the New Mexico Sun that it “seems like the city has known what they were going to do here for a while."
The city "also knows the impact of homeless encampments next to neighborhoods and to not involve us from the beginning is incredibly discouraging,” she said. “Failing to have us at the table, especially when they know how dangerous these encampments are, shows a complete lack of regard for the welfare and safety of our community. They can call it 'safe' all they want, but we’re not safe and experience has shown us that."
Naranjo Lopez is a life-long resident of Martineztown, a sixth-generation descendant of the Martinez family, founders of Martineztown and the President of the Santa Barbara Martineztown Neighborhood Association. Naranjo Lopez retired as a City of Albuquerque Planner in 2003 and holds a Master of Community and Regional Planning along with a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of New Mexico.
