Local leaders and community members came together to celebrate the city’s first safe outdoor space for people experiencing homelessness Thursday.
About 50 people gathered under sunny skies at New Creation Church in Albuquerque’s International District, just across the street from Bernalillo County’s Tiny Home Village. Safe outdoor spaces are designated areas that provide temporary shelter for unhoused people, usually with tents, restrooms, and social services available.
New Creation Pastor Jesse Harden said the space off Zuni Road has been in the making for a couple years.
“We heard a rumor that we could start a safe outdoor space on church property. Didn't realize there was kind of a lot of hoops to jump through, so we just did it,” he said.
Eventually they built sheds for people, which Harden said is when code enforcement officers shut the program down, because the shelters were missing minimum requirements like running water and heating and cooling.
So Harden said they switched back to the tents, and went through an eight month process working with the city to get the official approval to start moving people in. They now have five people living there out of 10 possible slots in seven tents, some of which could hold couples or parents and children.
The space also has a portapotty and hand washing station, and Harden said they’re working with Mesilla Recovery to provide social services.
Amzie Yoder, who has volunteered time helping set up the space, said they’re planning on upgrading the sheds and applying for a zoning variance with the hope of housing even more people in better conditions.
“We are looking at the possibility of putting a mini split for every two, and that would give heating and cooling,” he said. “Then we'd have to pipe water into each one.”
He said the unhoused people living in the area helped to paint the sheds, install the tent platforms and spread the gravel, which was donated by Duke City Cement.
“The whole approach is not a hand out, but a hand up.,” Yodder said. “So if you want to have a better life, get involved in making it better.”
Harden said religious organizations receive special zoning exemptions that allow them to more easily set up these sorts of safe outdoor spaces, and encourages others to step up and create their own.
“I want to invite other organizations, other faith communities, to create similar spaces of welcoming, to put down what divides us and to welcome one another,” he said. “We have navigated a lot of the challenges. We have the blueprint, and you can just kind of plug and play. We love to walk alongside of you to create similar spaces.”
Harden says anyone interested in moving into the space, simply needs to reach out to New Creations.
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
