Applications open in Sept. for first round of $125 million in state housing loans - Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
A key part of what state lawmakers called a “historic” investment in affordable housing will take a major step forward in September, when applications open for what will ultimately be $125 million in loans to develop middle-income housing and affordable housing infrastructure.
An interim legislative committee Monday approved rules for administering a new revolving loan program to boost the state’s housing supply. Up to $30 million in low-interest loans will be available to applicants, largely private and nonprofit developers, when the first round of loans opens up in early September.
The loan program is overseen by staff from the New Mexico Finance Authority and approved by a newly created board, which includes members appointed by the governor, commercial developers and others. Loan recipients are expected to be private developers and housing nonprofits.
Lawmakers approved the loan program in February, part of what they touted as the biggest one-time investment in housing in state history. In total, the Legislature approved about $200 million in one-time spending, including $20 million on homelessness initiatives and $50 million for the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority, which recently rebranded as Housing New Mexico.
The loan program is spurring development of “workforce housing,” which authority officials say is housing for those who make too much income to qualify for federal or state housing aid but too little to afford anything in the current, hot housing market.
The program also seeks to subsidize infrastructure projects that would support new affordable housing development, which are projects that qualify for state and federal subsidies.
Taken together, the two goals of the loan program are to complement existing programs by various local and state housing agencies and Housing New Mexico, which oversees numerous programs for low-income renters and prospective homebuyers.
POINT SYSTEM DEFINED FOR APPLICANTS
The rules and a related policy guide describe a 100-point system that will reward applicants whose projects are in rural areas, use local developers, are close to amenities and transportation, are affordable and have more than 65% of the project costs covered by the team they seek a loan.
Under the guidelines, up to 40 points could be awarded for projects that demonstrate they meet a community need, use inclusive design techniques, or use local apprenticeship programs and developers.
Up to 25 points can be awarded for projects that use the funding efficiently, pay it back quickly and keep costs low. Applicants that seek funding for a project that spends more than $100,000 per dwelling unit won’t receive any points, for example.
A maximum of 15 points would be awarded for projects that are ready to be built quickly and successfully, showing a “high potential for success based on financial feasibility” and having an experienced development team in place.
Finally, up to 20 points could be awarded for projects that demonstrate local governments have bought in through zoning reforms and flexible land use regulations. “Development of attainable housing is frequently hindered by and made more costly by local government regulations,” the guidelines note.
The loans will be 60% of the Wall Street Journal prime rate on the day they are issued. The current rate is 8.5%, so such a loan given today would be 5.1%.
LOANS TO BE CAPPED AT $15M
Marquita Russel, CEO of the Mortgage Finance Authority, told the legislative committee Monday that the staff who developed the guidelines tried to tailor the policy even more narrowly, identifying specific gaps for funding prioritization, including where in New Mexico such housing projects were highly needed, whether they should be for infrastructure or development, whether they should be multi-family or single-family, and other factors.
“Ultimately, there wasn’t enough statewide data to really support that kind of prioritization,” she said. “So they couldn’t decide where there were gaps, because the data is inconsistent or in some instances, just missing.”
Still, recent studies show New Mexico is experiencing a housing affordability crisis. A report late last month by Housing New Mexico found monthly rent increased by nearly 17% since 2018, and 28% of homeowners spend roughly a third or more of their incomes on mortgages. Also, homelessness in Albuquerque increased by more than a quarter over last year, according to a recently released point-in-time count.
The authority will accept applications for the latest round starting Sept. 4. Loans are limited at $15 million, though Russel suggested the board would try to avoid awarding the maximum amount: “Our board would like to see smaller portions of that” $15 million cap, she said.
The next application window will be open Jan. 8, and a third will begin April 30, according to Russel’s presentation Monday.
When New Mexico’s governor signed the bill approving the loan program in February, she challenged Russel and the authority to get the first project approved by this fall, citing the pressing need for new housing across the state.
State Sen. Michael Padilla (D-Albuquerque), who chairs the NMFA Oversight Committee, praised the quick release of rules as the debate wrapped up Monday afternoon.
“This thing’s moving quickly,” he said. “I was really hoping this thing wouldn’t last two or three years, trying to get the dang rules together. So, I’m really glad.”
Only about half of funds NM has put toward public safety have been spent, says new report — Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
Amid a struggle between lawmakers and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to enhance public safety across New Mexico, a new legislative report shows much of the funding allocated to the effort over the last few years has gone unspent.
The Legislative Finance Committee report found lawmakers have allocated $424 million in one-time funds to public safety initiatives over the last five years. And that various state agencies have only spent about half of it, including the largest pot of money for officer recruitment and retention.
The Albuquerque Journal reports lawmakers expressed frustration about the findings at the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee meeting this week.
Chair, Democratic Rep. Christine Chandler, said lawmakers have been doing their part to support local and state agencies by “providing the resources they ask for and they need.” However, once the cash gets to them, they struggle to use it.
Chandler says Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham hasn’t helped matters by vetoing language in the budget meant to guide that spending.
A spokesperson for the governor took issue with the accuracy of the report, calling the data potentially misleading. She also said “funding alone” won’t solve the state’s public safety issues, arguing for changes in law that Lujan Grisham advocated for when she called a special legislative session last month.
Lawmakers didn’t pass the public safety proposals the governor wanted. Several argued existing laws aren’t being adequately enforced.
NM governor hiring at least two people for her new statewide housing office - By Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office is seeking applicants to fill at least two jobs for the newly created “Office of Housing,” a small group of executive branch officials tasked with coordinating various statewide housing programs.
Creating a statewide housing office under the governor’s control was one of Lujan Grisham’s main priorities during the 2024 30-day legislative session. Lawmakers ultimately stymied her request to create a formal office with expanded authority, but she did find $2 million to fund new positions to work in her office on the issue over the next two years.
The job openings include a new “director of statewide homelessness initiatives,” who would be responsible for a “coordinated and strategic response” to the growing unhoused population across the state, according to a news release from the governor’s office. The job would pay between $75,000 and $130,000.
The statewide housing office is also hiring at least one more person,creating a general job listing for those “with experience in housing development, programs, policy, regulatory frameworks, data and demographics,” according to the governor’s office. That job would pay between $50,000 and $120,000.
The governor staffing up a state housing office comes after the Legislature made a historic one-time investment to try and spark home building across New Mexico.
New state money includes a $125 million loan program for affordable housing infrastructure and workforce housing development, a $50 million payment for the New Mexico Affordable Housing Trust Fund and $20 million for initiatives aimed at homelessness.
The housing office is built to improve availability and affordability of homes across the state. The governor’s office is seeking “talented and innovative thinkers” to come up with new ideas and to build a strategic approach, according to the release.
“The housing landscape has changed monumentally in the last few years, and it’s time for new models and new levels of coordination,” said Daniel Werwath, whom the governor hired in January to lead the office, in the news release. “The Governor is assembling an experienced team with broad expertise to develop innovative ways to combat the unprecedented housing crisis facing New Mexico.”
Lujan Grisham asked the Legislature to sanction her push for an Office of Housing and grant it new authority, including putting the office’s new director on the board of the New Mexico
Mortgage Finance Authority, which recently rebranded as Housing New Mexico. She made the rare move of advocating for the bill in person in front of a legislative committee.
A bill the governor supported faced pushback from some lawmakers who thought a new office could be redundant or get in the way of existing state entities, like Housing New Mexico. Housing New Mexico officials also lobbied against Lujan Grisham’s proposal.
How will construction on I-25 affect your commute? - City Desk Staff Report
This story was originally published by City Desk ABQ
The New Mexico Department of Transportation has launched what it said is its largest construction project in recent history and the road work could begin affecting Albuquerque drivers today.
Crews will start by shifting travel lanes of Interstate 25 between Comanche Road and Montgomery Boulevard toward the median to begin work on the outside lanes. There will still be three travel lanes open in each direction.
The freeway will mostly remain open as workers will start by directing traffic to inside lanes as they work on reconstructing the outside lanes. However, there will be some nighttime closures for bridge replacement. Detours will be posted.
Toward the end of the month, the westbound Montgomery Boulevard loop ramp to southbound I-25 will permanently close, according to NMDOT.
The construction project is expected to last through spring 2027.
State officials say when completed, the $268 million project will increase safety for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists, replace aging bridges and pavement and lead to improved travel times through the area.
According to an NMDOT news release, the project will include concurrent design and construction, allowing for use of the most current and innovative techniques and materials and the fastest and most cost-effective completion of the job.
That stretch of I-25 serves about 102,000 vehicles a day.
Mark Ronchetti awarded hundreds of thousands for leaked campaign website - Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
When Mark Ronchetti ran for governor in 2022, his announcement got away from him thanks to his campaign website getting published before it was meant to. Ronchetti, who lost to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, sued the media firm that built and leaked the site, and has now been awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.
The Albuquerque Journal reports Go Big Media Inc. published Ronchetti’s campaign site before he’d put in his notice at KRQE, where he was a TV weatherman. As a result, he suddenly lost his job, had to pay $40,000 to break his contract, and had his future prospects in TV media damaged, according to his lawsuit.
While District Judge Lisa Chavez Ortega did not rule that the leak was intentional, she did order Go Big Media to pay Ronchetti more than $386,000 in damages, calling it “incomprehensible and inexcusable” for the company to be “ignorant of the requirements to maintain the confidentiality and security of individual pages of a campaign website.”
The company called the leak “an honest mistake” on behalf of a single employee. While the main pages of the site were password protected, the company says the employee “mistakenly failed to provide password protection to an internal page.”
It wasn’t the first time the company leaked a Ronchetti campaign site, either. It also prematurely published the site for his 2020 Senate campaign, though with fewer repercussions.
Suspect in Santa Fe carjacking murder arrested in Las Cruces - Santa Fe New Mexican, KUNM News
The suspect in the murder of an elderly Santa Fe resident during a carjacking last week has been arrested in southern New Mexico and faces extradition to the capital city.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports Las Cruces police arrested Zachary Babitz Saturday night following reports of an armed robbery and carjacking in that city. Babitz has been charged with first-degree murder and robbery in connection with the Santa Fe incident.
Santa Fe police Capt. Thomas Grundler announced Sunday that Babitz will be extradited to Santa Fe “to answer for Gordon Wilson’s murder.”
Wilson, an 83-year-old retiree, was shot and killed after getting out of his car in the Best Buy parking lot. The homicide was only the city’s second this year.
When Babitz will be sent to Santa Fe depends on any charges he faces in Las Cruces, where he’s accused of robbing an Arby’s employee at gunpoint, stealing a car, and fleeing on foot after crashing it a few miles away.
Between Santa Fe and Las Cruces, police tracked Babbit to Albuquerque, according to an affidavit. The friend he stayed with told police Babbit said he’d shot someone in Santa Fe who had tried to grab his gun.
Arizona tribe wants feds to replace electrical transmission line after a 21-hour power outage - Associated Press
San Carlos Apache Chairman Terry Rambler wants answers after the northern half of the reservation in southeastern Arizona was without electricity for nearly a day after a storm blew down a major electrical transmission line.
"This kind of electrical failure is usually equated with developing countries, not the United States," Rambler said in a statement Monday.
Tribal officials say the transmission line fails routinely and leaves residents and businesses without power — sometimes for days. The power outage Saturday disrupted mobile phone service, shut down two community wells and forced the hospital to use a backup generator, the tribe said.
A tribal emergency response team set up a shelter, and provided water and ice to residents before power was restored early Sunday afternoon.
Rambler said the tribe repeatedly has asked federal authorities to replace the transmission line and create better access to it.
He's scheduled to meet with Interior Secretary Debra Haaland in Washington next month to talk about funding solutions to prevent future outages, he said.
The transmission line, in a remote area between Coolidge Dam and Winkelman, dates back to 1924 when the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs established the San Carlos Irrigation Project to provide electricity to residents on and off the reservation, and irrigation water and pumping to private landowners.
Other Native American tribes grapple with longstanding infrastructure deficiencies, including electricity, running water and broadband access.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Indian Energy has been working with tribes on funding projects aimed at making their existing systems more resilient and transitioning to clean energy. Between 2010 and 2022, the office invested over $120 million in more than 210 energy projects across the U.S. ___
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Haaland's first name.