When Sarah Smith attended a community safety meeting last summer, she heard complaints about the Desert Hope Apartments in Las Cruces that she didn’t expect.
“I personally had no reason to even question this place, but there were two women there who were living close to that homeless housing project, and they were reporting a lot of issues related to crime and drugs in their neighborhood ever since it had been opened up," she said.
The 40-unit affordable housing development opened its doors in August 2021 on Pecos Street specifically to assist people experiencing homelessness. However, Smith said there are no barriers to entry for the tenants who reside at Desert Hope.
“There have been several different drug dealers who've been living in that complex who are selling drugs, allegedly,” she said.
Smith, a member of the New Mexico Freedoms Alliance (NMFA) executive committee, along with Melanie Rubin and Karen Larré, works with the Coalition of Conservatives in Action.
"We collaborate toward helping the public know what's going on, helping the public know who they need to contact and how to hold elected officials accountable," she said. "We remind elected officials as to what's going on. It does seem like over time the city council will start to understand more or believe what's going on, the more they hear about it."
Smith, who lives 10 minutes away from Desert Hope Apartments, said the housing project has allegedly negatively impacted the adjacent community.
“Our community as a whole is at stake,” she said. "People who live near Desert Hope don't feel safe to walk in their neighborhood anymore. Those who can are leaving Las Cruces and those who can't basically feel trapped and feel like they can't go anywhere or leave their house for any significant amount of time out of fear it's going to be broken into.”
As previously reported in Source NM, in 2023 alone, there were an estimated 3,842 unhoused people statewide; however, the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness told lawmakers that a more accurate count is some 20,000.
"Our city council is looking toward a pilot project to provide hygiene stations for the homeless, where they can use the bathroom and shower," Smith told the New Mexico Sun. "This is an attempt to reduce the public urination and defecation.
She attributes an increase in crime and the unhoused to a combination of factors, including catch and release policies, services being offered to the homeless without sobriety requirements, lack of mental health services, and an alleged influx of fentanyl across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Fentanyl seizures in the county this year have already surpassed the number of seizures reported last year, according to media reports.
“Our market here is basically serving people from Texas who want cannabis,” Smith added. “Many community members are very concerned about how many cannabis businesses there are especially because studies have shown that the higher the density is, the more youth will be using it. The school system has been reporting that they're having a lot more issues with kids vaping and vaping cannabis specifically."