After federal judge’s order, NM fire victims should seek to describe their anguish, lawyer says — Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Now that a judge has struck down a federal regulation that limited compensation only to economic losses from the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire, a New Mexico legal aid attorney is urging fire victims to try to articulate the fire’s emotional toll, if only for themselves.
Federal Judge James O. Browning’s 99-page ruling Tuesday opened the door for many fire victims, including those with low incomes or those who had little property to their names, to get compensation they’re owed for so-called “noneconomic damages” from the biggest wildfire in New Mexico history in 2022.
Much uncertainty remains about what that means. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is tasked with overseeing a nearly $4 billion fund for fire victims, has until late February to file a legal appeal, according to victims’ attorney Brian Colón. The agency has not yet said whether it will do so.
Even if it doesn’t appeal, the agency faces a daunting task to quantify emotional harm done by the fire and ensuing floods and establish a system to pay people fairly for what is, by its nature, a very individual type of pain.
Amid that uncertainty, New Mexico Legal Aid attorney Mara Christine received multiple phone calls this week from her clients, who were excited about the possibility of an additional type of recourse but also confused about next steps.
Christine recommended victims think about how the fire caused emotional distress and then write a list or a narrative or talk it out with a friend or spouse. Putting it into words will help when it comes to claiming noneconomic losses from the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire claims office, she said.
Questions Christine recommended as prompts: Did the emotional pain make you short of breath? Cause you to lose weight? Shorten your patience with your children?
“Really start thinking about it,” she said. “So if and when someone gets to a point of including it in a claim or a proof of loss, they have some familiarity with what they want to say.”
Christine’s main advice is for clients to call their FEMA-assigned navigator and to wait and see. Still, she predicts that, because the ruling is so new, most FEMA officials won’t know all the answers.
Deadline arriving soon
The deadline to file an initial claim for damages, known as a “notice of loss” form is 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time on Friday. The deadline doesn’t impact anyone who has already filed a claim.
The form also doesn’t need to be completely detailed with every single loss in the fire, because that information can be added later.
“Claimants can add eligible losses to their claims after the deadline through the Proof of Loss process, including for compensation that may become available in the future,” claims office officials posted on Facebook on Thursday morning.
Still, Christine said it is a “good idea” to mention noneconomic damages in a notice of loss. That can go along with economic damages, which are those types of damages with a price tag, like a burned home or structure, lost business revenue, flood damage to property and more.
Law firms that sued FEMA over the noneconomic damage issue have generally included narratives or other mention of noneconomic damages in their claim documents they’ve already filed for their clients.
But fire victims who don’t have lawyers should still be eligible for noneconomic damages, lawyers have said.
For those who have already filed an initial claim or a completed claim, known as a “proof of loss,” it may be possible to reopen a claim and add noneconomic damages, Christine said. She again urged fire victims with that question to ask their navigators or other FEMA officials.
One big looming question, Christine said, is whether those who have already accepted a final payment offer and signed a “release and certification” form will be able to go back to FEMA for noneconomic damages.
“A lot of people already have signed that and received payment or partial payment on their claims,” she said. “So that might be the biggest question, honestly, that comes up.”
In a statement to Source New Mexico on Thursday, FEMA officials did not address a question about whether people who have signed off on their claim could still be eligible for noneconomic damages, or how that could work.
A statement from the office did say officials there are still evaluating options, including whether to appeal Browning’s ruling, in consultation with the United States Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice.
“The claims office remains committed to compensating New Mexicans who were impacted by the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire and subsequent cascading events in a fair and equitable manner to the maximum extent permissible by law,” the statement reads.
The damages could total several hundred million dollars. That money would come from a $3.95 billion fund Congress established in late 2022 to compensate victims of the fire, which began as two botched prescribed burns that got out of control and merged that spring.
As of Dec. 18, the office has already paid out $1.65 billion in about 12,400 claims, which is about 42% of the total Congress awarded. Two congressional spending bills that included an additional $1.5 billion for Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire victims failed this week, though funding could be added in future legislation.
How could it work?
In addition to the billions of dollars in damage to homes and forests, the 534-square-mile fire placed an immense emotional toll on communities in and around the burn scar. About 15,000 people were ordered to flee, and hundreds returned to find their homes destroyed.
A towering smoke plume could be seen for dozens of miles. Calls to a wildfire mental health hotline shot up in spring 2023, following a long, smoke-filled summer and cold winter in the rural, mountainous areas most affected by the blaze.
Dozens of interviews with survivors reveal widespread trauma and anxiety about future fires and floods, plus anger at the slow pace of recovery and red tape between victims and compensation.
Colón, the fire victims’ attorney and a former New Mexico treasurer, said he called on FEMA to begin preparing a system to pay noneconomic damage payments at scale several months ago in a meeting, given Judge Browning’s comments in open court.
It’s unclear if they did so. FEMA officials did not answer that question in the statement to Source New Mexico onThursday.
Still, Colón said his firm has recommended to FEMA a system for payments based on things like whether a household lived in the burn scar in their primary residence or whether they lost a vacation home.
He recommends FEMA “have a tiered system that appropriately compensates people with an initial offer, and then allow people to submit documentation and prove that they were either harmed in a greater way, as the tiered system contemplates, or not,” he said.
One example of mass payment for noneconomic damages to wildfire victims played out in California, though it involved a private company involved in a bankruptcy proceeding. After PG&E accepted liability for wildfires in 2018, it was ordered to pay about $13 billion.
Victims received two rounds of noneconomic damage payments. In 2019, they received between $3,500 and $17,500 from a $100 million fund for emotional distress, so long as they could prove residency in affected areas, according to Joe Burns, a spokesperson for the trust paying out the claims back then.
Later on, victims received an additional round of payments of between $20,000 and $165,000 , based on emotional distress rated on a scale between “severe” and “mild.” Those payments were for people in the fire perimeter who experienced emotional distress or mental anguish during the fire while evacuating or sheltering-in-place, according to the Fire Victims Trust website.
One benefit of the system in California is that it allowed the trust to make payments quickly, without too many bureaucratic hurdles and without privileging those with a lot of money or property, victims’ lawyers have said.
Christine said her “pie-in-the-sky” hopes for the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire is a substantial sum paid quickly and fairly to everyone affected.
“It would be amazing if they just did that, but it’s going to be more nuanced than that,” she said. “How they’re going to choose to classify these noneconomic damages is anyone’s guess at this point.”
Colón extolled FEMA to get to work immediately and not to even consider appealing the verdict, which he said would be a “horrible decision” that would prolong matters at least six months, when all those affected need to move forward with their lives.
“They have a moral obligation to work twice as hard because they didn’t get prepared,” Colón said. “Because these folks have waited long enough. They shouldn’t have to wait any longer.”
NMED releases draft Clean Transportation Fuels Program rule - By Hannah Grover, New Mexico Political Report
The New Mexico Environment Department on Thursday released a draft rule intended to reduce emissions from the transportation sector.
This rule comes as a result of legislation passed earlier this year and is a part of the clean transportation fuels program. It would do so by allowing producers and importers of low-carbon fuels to generate credits that could then be sold to those who produce or import fuels with higher carbon footprints.
“Our clean fuels program is based on the principle of rewarding businesses for helping New Mexico safeguard its air,” Environment Department Secretary James Kenney wrote in a statement. “The release of this draft rule signals that we’re close to bringing this initiative, which is poised to be a key factor in meeting our ambitious climate goals, to fruition.”
In a news release, the department stated that New Mexico could “generate millions in wages and capital investment in new and cutting-edge industries like clean hydrogen, syngas, and renewable propane.”
Those are controversial sources of energy that some advocates say are “greenwashing” and will not lead to meaningful declines in emissions.
The Environment Department is hosting public meetings in January to help educate the public about the draft rule and to get feedback. The first meeting will be at 4:30 p.m. Jan. 6, 2025, at the Albuquerque International Public Library. The second meeting will be a virtual meeting from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 10.
“New Mexico continues to lead on strategies to protect our planet from climate change while also creating the dynamic new clean energy jobs of the future,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “This new clean fuel program will help New Mexico continue to make progress toward our ambitious climate goals.”
Council passes proposal to crack down on illegal parking - By Elizabeth McCall, City Desk ABQ
Albuquerque may have fewer people parking illegally now that a new automated parking enforcement system is coming to the city.
The City Council Monday approved a proposal to implement the new technology aimed at preventing people from evading parking meter charges or staying over the time limit.
The proposal, sponsored by Councilor Joaquín Baca, comes from a controversial Downtown bill that city councilors voted down in October. Baca was the only councilor who voted for the bill, which suggested putting more pressure on vacant property owners and banning people from sitting or lying on sidewalks.
“Folks may remember this as part of my Downtown renaissance bill,” Baca said during the meeting. “Several councilors asked that the bill be broken up and voted on individually. This is the first part of that bill…This will allow for dynamic, new and efficient parking throughout our city and at no cost to the city.”
The legislation states that the city’s traffic code requires officers “to physically place citations on vehicles, which limits enforcement on city metered spaces.”
The new system can track which vehicles are in violation. A citation will then be mailed to the owner, which could lead to “reducing instances of illegal parking.”
If the ticket is not paid within 20 days, the owner will receive a warning letter that a complaint will be filed with the Metropolitan Court. The fine will also be doubled and continue to be raised.
“[Fines] if not paid within 30 days of the issuance of the violation, shall be three times the amount of the fine, unless the person cited has initiated court proceedings to answer the charges within 20 days of the issuance of the citation,” the legislation states.
Albuquerque Public Library announces new app - By Rodd Cayton, City Desk ABQ
The digital revolution continues in Albuquerque, with the public library introducing its new smartphone app.
Albuquerque has introduced a new smartphone app — the Public Library ABQ-BernCo app — to allow users to use a digital library card to find the nearest or preferred library branch, search the catalog and place holds, edit or cancel existing holds, renew checked-out materials or check out materials while in a brick-and-mortar location.
“We understand our patrons lead busy lives,” acting Library Director Kelli Murphy said. “We’re thrilled to offer an app that allows them to search, hold and renew materials whenever it’s most convenient for them.”
Future updates will introduce additional features that further enrich the user experience, according to a library news release.
“We all use our phones now for nearly everything, so we’re modernizing to create seamless access to library resources anytime, anywhere,” Mayor Tim Keller said in the news release. “This innovation makes things easier for everyone and strengthens the connection between the library and the families and institutions who depend on it.”
The Public Library ABQ-BernCo app is now available for download on iOS and Android devices. Search for “The Public Library ABQ-BernCo” in the App Store or Google Play to download the app and explore its features.
More information is available at abqlibrary.org.
Giant sloths and mastodons lived with humans for millennia in the Americas, new discoveries suggest - By Christina Larson AP Science Writer
Sloths weren't always slow-moving, furry tree-dwellers. Their prehistoric ancestors were huge — up to 4 tons— and when startled, they brandished immense claws.
For a long time, scientists believed the first humans to arrive in the Americas soon killed off these giant ground sloths through hunting, along with many other massive animals like mastodons, saber-toothed cats and dire wolves that once roamed North and South America.
But new research from several sites is starting to suggest that people came to the Americas earlier — perhaps far earlier — than once thought. These findings hint at a remarkably different life for these early Americans, one in which they may have spent millennia sharing prehistoric savannas and wetlands with enormous beasts.
"There was this idea that humans arrived and killed everything off very quickly — what's called 'Pleistocene overkill,'" said Daniel Odess, an archaeologist at White Sands National Park in New Mexico. But new discoveries suggest that "humans were existing alongside these animals for at least 10,000 years, without making them go extinct."
Some of the most tantalizing clues come from an archaeological site in central Brazil, called Santa Elina, where bones of giant ground sloths show signs of being manipulated by humans. Sloths like these once lived from Alaska to Argentina, and some species had bony structures on their backs, called osteoderms — a bit like the plates of modern armadillos — that may have been used to make decorations.
In a lab at the University of Sao Paulo, researcher Mírian Pacheco holds in her palm a round, penny-sized sloth fossil. She notes that its surface is surprisingly smooth, the edges appear to have been deliberately polished, and there's a tiny hole near one edge.
"We believe it was intentionally altered and used by ancient people as jewelry or adornment," she said. Three similar "pendant" fossils are visibly different from unworked osteoderms on a table — those are rough-surfaced and without any holes.
These artifacts from Santa Elina are roughly 27,000 years old — more than 10,000 years before scientists once thought that humans arrived in the Americas.
Originally researchers wondered if the craftsmen were working on already old fossils. But Pacheco's research strongly suggests that ancient people were carving "fresh bones" shortly after the animals died.
Her findings, together with other recent discoveries, could help rewrite the tale of when humans first arrived in the Americas — and the effect they had on the environment they found.
"There's still a big debate," Pacheco said.
Scientists know that the first humans emerged in Africa, then moved into Europe and Asia-Pacific, before finally making their way to the last continental frontier, the Americas. But questions remain about the final chapter of the human origins story.
Pacheco was taught in high school the theory that most archaeologists held throughout the 20th century. "What I learned in school was that Clovis was first," she said.
Clovis is a site in New Mexico, where archaeologists in the 1920s and 1930s found distinctive projectile points and other artifacts dated to between 11,000 and 13,000 years ago.
This date happens to coincide with the end of the last Ice Age, a time when an ice-free corridor likely emerged in North America — giving rise to an idea about how early humans moved into the continent after crossing the Bering land bridge from Asia.
And because the fossil record shows the widespread decline of American megafauna starting around the same time — with North America losing 70% of its large mammals, and South America losing more than 80% — many researchers surmised that humans' arrival led to mass extinctions.
"It was a nice story for a while, when all the timing lined up," said paleoanthropologist Briana Pobiner at the Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program. "But it doesn't really work so well anymore."
In the past 30 years, new research methods — including ancient DNA analysis and new laboratory techniques — coupled with the examination of additional archaeological sites and inclusion of more diverse scholars across the Americas, have upended the old narrative and raised new questions, especially about timing.
"Anything older than about 15,000 years still draws intense scrutiny," said Richard Fariña, a paleontologist at the University of the Republic in Montevideo, Uruguay. "But really compelling evidence from more and more older sites keeps coming to light."
In Sao Paulo and at the Federal University of Sao Carlos, Pacheco studies the chemical changes that occur when a bone becomes a fossil. This allows her team to analyze when the sloth osteoderms were likely modified.
"We found that the osteoderms were carved before the fossilization process" in "fresh bones" — meaning anywhere from a few days to a few years after the sloths died, but not thousands of years later.
Her team also tested and ruled out several natural processes, like erosion and animal gnawing. The research was published last year in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
One of her collaborators, paleontologist Thaís Pansani, recently based at the Smithsonian Institution, is analyzing whether similar-aged sloth bones found at Santa Elina were charred by human-made fires, which burn at different temperatures than natural wildfires.
Her preliminary results suggest that the fresh sloth bones were present at human campsites — whether burned deliberately in cooking, or simply nearby, isn't clear. She is also testing and ruling out other possible causes for the black markings, such as natural chemical discoloration.
The first site widely accepted as older than Clovis was in Monte Verde, Chile.
Buried beneath a peat bog, researchers discovered 14,500-year-old stone tools, pieces of preserved animal hides, and various edible and medicinal plants.
"Monte Verde was a shock. You're here at the end of the world, with all this organic stuff preserved," said Vanderbilt University archaeologist Tom Dillehay, a longtime researcher at Monte Verde.
Other archaeological sites suggest even earlier dates for human presence in the Americas.
Among the oldest sites is Arroyo del Vizcaíno in Uruguay, where researchers are studying apparent human-made "cut marks" on animal bones dated to around 30,000 years ago.
At New Mexico's White Sands, researchers have uncovered human footprints dated to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago, as well as similar-aged tracks of giant mammals. But some archaeologists say it's hard to imagine that humans would repeatedly traverse a site and leave no stone tools.
"They've made a strong case, but there are still some things about that site that puzzle me," said David Meltzer, an archaeologist at Southern Methodist University. "Why would people leave footprints over a long period of time, but never any artifacts?"
Odess at White Sands said that he expects and welcomes such challenges. "We didn't set out to find the oldest anything — we've really just followed the evidence where it leads," he said.
While the exact timing of humans' arrival in the Americas remains contested — and may never be known — it seems clear that if the first people arrived earlier than once thought, they didn't immediately decimate the giant beasts they encountered.
And the White Sands footprints preserve a few moments of their early interactions.
As Odess interprets them, one set of tracks shows "a giant ground sloth going along on four feet" when it encounters the footprints of a small human who's recently dashed by. The huge animal "stops and rears up on hind legs, shuffles around, then heads off in a different direction."
Sandia Labs see increase in partnerships with private entities to develop technology — Hannah Grover, NM Political Report
Sandia National Laboratories entered into more agreements this year with businesses to help bring its technologies to market than it has since the 1990s when the world wide web was in the beginning stages of becoming more commonplace.
These agreements are known as Cooperative Research and Development Agreements, or CRADAs. During the federal fiscal year 2024, which ended Sept. 30, Sandia entered into 72. This is the second highest number of CRADAs the lab has ever entered into.
Jason Martinez, a business development specialist at Sandia, said there isn’t any particular area where the labs have seen a spike in CRADAs.
“It’s just kind of more like the rising tide has raised all the boats,” he said.
Martinez said there are a variety of factors contributing to the increase, including more awareness surrounding recent success stories and more funding opportunities from federal agencies such as the Department of Energy. He also said the COVID-19 pandemic led to a proliferation of new businesses starting up.
“CRADA is an opportunity to get intellectual property, knowledge, capabilities and the human capital that the laboratories have developed and fostered over the years and transfer that out into academia and industry for the benefit of the US economy,” he said.
Martinez said the labs are not able to commercialize the technologies they develop and instead need industry partners to do so.
This can be demonstrated by the CRADA that Sandia entered into with Adaptyx Biosciences this year to advance the microneedle technology that researchers such as analytical chemist Ronen Polsky have been working on for more than a decade.
“So microneedles are just as they sound, really small needles,” Polsky said. “They pierce through the outermost layer of the skin, and they’re so short that they don’t eat nerve endings, so they’re completely painless. And because they’re also so short, we don’t measure blood, we measure something called interstitial fluid. And we’ve been designing these as a way to minimally invasively self-administer a diagnostic patch that can detect circulating biomarkers.”
He said they are similar to a wearable glucose monitor, but are smaller, less painful and target a wider range of markers.
Polsky said almost everything found in blood can also be measured in interstitial fluid.
“You can use the interstitial fluid as a blood proxy, but we also believe that there is likely unique information in the interstitial fluid that you won’t find in blood,” he said.
He gave the example of immune cell content from the skin.
“Maybe [microneedle technology] will be a better way to detect infectious diseases, for instance,” he said.
Adaptyx Biosciences was an ideal partner for this effort because the company was already interested in researching interstitial fluid.
In a news release earlier this year, Alex Yoshikawa, the co-founder of Adaptyx, said the company wants to “broadly understand the components in interstitial fluid and how those components correlate to blood measurements.”
CRADAs like the one between Sandia and Adaptyx also benefit the economy.
Two studies that Sandia and the National Nuclear Securities Administration commissioned indicated that, between 2000 and 2023, the labs have generated $140 billion for the economy through developing technologies and entering into CRADAs and patent license agreements.
The results of those studies were released in April.
Martinez said the CRADAs are a collaborative effort that benefits both the labs and the businesses or academic institutions that enter into the partnerships.
“It’s kind of a two way street, because we have our own missions that we have at the laboratories, and industry and academia have their perspectives on how to solve a lot of good science and engineering questions out there,” he said. “So they’re able to bring to bear the perspectives from a commercial aspect and from an academic aspect on some of the problems we have as well. So we view it as a mutual collaboration. It’s a collaboration and the truest sense of the word.”
NM congressional delegation backs Caja del Rio becoming a national monument — By Nash Jones, KUNM News
In a letter on Thursday, New Mexico’s congressional delegation urged President Biden to designate the Caja del Rio a national monument in his administration’s final days.
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez’s office released the letter signed by fellow Reps. Melanie Stansbury and Gabe Vasquez, along with Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján. Heinrich had previously declared his support for the move.
It calls the designation a,“Urgent need to protect one of New Mexico’s most ecologically, historically, and culturally significant landscapes.”
The push from the state’s federal lawmakers comes as tribes, land grant communities and conservationists have been working tirelessly to preserve and protect the area in a years-long fight over Los Alamos National Laboratories’ plans to build a controversial transmission line over it.
In their letter, the delegation asks, “That existing and proposed uses, such as grazing and power transmission, be included in the designation process.” It is unclear whether that would mean the designation would not block the proposed LANL line.
MacKenzie Scott donates $25M to NM nonprofit Homewise - By Nash Jones, KUNM News
Santa-Fe based nonprofit Homewise announced Thursday that it has received a massive $25 million infusion from billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.
In its announcement, Homewise called the donation from Scott’s Yield Giving project “a transformative investment” for the organization that supports New Mexicans in achieving homeownership.
The organization also welcomed a $10 million investment from northern New Mexico’s Anchorum Health Foundation according to the announcement.
Homewise vowed not to spend any of the windfall on its operational costs, saying in a statement that all of the money will, “Directly fund programs that create pathways to affordable homeownership.”
Those include building new affordable housing in Santa Fe and Albuquerque and expanding lending programs for first-time homebuyers and energy efficiency upgrades.
New Mexico housing authority board pulls plan to increase income limits for home-buying programs - By Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
The chair of New Mexico’s housing authority board decided to hold off on considering a significant increase on income caps to qualify for various affordable housing programs.
The Housing New Mexico board did not describe the reason for the policy change at its meeting Wednesday, and no justification was provided in materials provided to the board ahead of the meeting.
The board did so because members heard in the last couple days that state lawmakers and others were concerned about the change, said housing authority spokesperson Kristie Garcia.
“We want to be sure we understand their concerns,” Garcia said. “We’d like more time to provide more information to legislators on how funds are allocated throughout the housing continuum so there is a better understanding of where and how resources are used.”
Housing New Mexico, which recently changed its name from the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority, spends tens of millions of dollars a year on multiple programs to make housing affordable, including down payment assistance, first-time homebuyer programs, weatherization funding and more. But those programs are limited to those whose incomes fall below a certain percentage of the area median income.
The authority was hoping to revise regulations to increase the cap from 150% of area median income to 200%. For example, the 2023 area median income for a four-person household in Albuquerque was $79,900. The current policy would allow that household to qualify if they made $119,850 a year. The new proposed policy would mean they could earn $159,800 a year and still qualify.
Under the new proposed policy and current average 30-year mortgage interest rates of 6.89%, that same household, if they had no debts and made a $20,000 down payment, could comfortably afford a $577,000 home, according to an affordability calculator from real estate website Zillow.
The area median income is higher or lower in different areas of the state. In Los Alamos, for example, it’s $151,300 for a four-person household, so the new cap for them would be a little more than $300,000. In Mora County, a four-person household could earn up to about $141,000 and still qualify.
The proposed change came about a year after the authority raised it from 120% to 150%.
Although there wasn’t public discussion Wednesday, at a meeting of the authority’s legislative oversight committee in November, authority officials said the change was necessary amid rising home prices, among other reasons.
“This change is based on some projections and some analysis that we’ve done related to increases in housing costs, interest rates remaining at higher levels, more recently, the limited inventory of housing on the market,” said Robyn Powell, director of the authority’s policy and planning. “We’ll want to provide additional resources and flexibility where possible.”
Lawmakers at the committee ultimately approved Housing New Mexico’s proposed income limit increase, but it still needed to be approved at the meeting Wednesday to go into effect. Despite approving the change, lawmakers raised questions about data showing the increase was necessary.
Rep. Kathleen Cates (D-Rio Rancho) asked Powell for more data, because it seemed to her that the increase would make the vast majority of New Mexicans eligible for subsidized housing.
“I want to subsidize housing, but this just seems to be a big step in only one year,” she said. “If you had some data to be able to back up that: ‘Hey, we’re in a crisis, and we have to move fast, and here’s the data,’ then I would be more comfortable with this.”
Authority officials noted that the rule would not apply to federal housing subsidies, which has a lower cap, and they suggested they could change the rule in the future if it turns out to be benefiting the wrong people. But amid rising home prices and efforts to allow working people to live in their own communities, they felt the increase gave them better flexibility.
The proposed policy concerned others outside the legislative committee, as well. Daniel Werwath, who leads Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s newly created Office of Housing, said Wednesday he was happy to see the board pull the proposal.
“In general, we feel that extending limited public resources to higher income groups isn’t the best way to address the historic housing shortage,” Werwath told Source New Mexico in a statement. “Instead, we’d like to see a concerted effort to close the supply gap with a focus on creating new starter homes New Mexicans can afford without subsidies.”
During the last legislative session, the authority received a one-time payment of $50 million for its Housing Trust Fund, which funds many of the programs that would be subject to the new increase. It also received about $38 million in recurring severance tax revenue for the same fund.
The authority is asking the Legislature for $500 million at the upcoming session beginning in January. Lujan Grisham’s recent budget proposal mentions at least $100 million to be spent on affordable housing and anti-homelessness initiatives, amid a statewide housing crisis.