A court injunction from last year barred the City of Albuquerque from removing encampments of people experiencing homelessness in public spaces, but those in the encampments and their advocates are accusing the city of violating that order every day.
The advocacy group Millions for Prisoners held a press conference on Friday afternoon to call for an end to encampment sweeps.
“Every single time they displace people, people are critically hurt. We are in the middle of winter, and we have city workers who are throwing away life-saving supplies like tents, blankets, sleeping bags and coats,” said Selinda Guerrero, who leads the New Mexico chapter of Millions for Prisoners.
Her organization has worked with the New Mexico chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union to spread the word about the court order and hand out flyers so people experiencing homelessness have the information at hand if their encampment is cleared.
“Some of them even posted it on their tents in the encampments and when these folks came, they said they didn't care,” Guerrero said.
Milton Gonzalez owns A-1 Equipment, near the corner of Central Avenue and Pennsylvania Street. He interrupted the press conference to voice frustration with the state of encampments near his business.
“The government, the police aren’t following the laws, and these people aren’t following the laws,” he said.
A heated debate followed between him and those gathered at the event.
“We're here today to say that those resources need to be reallocated to help this community including you as a business owner because we know they've been targeting you too and we stand with you,” Guerrero said to him.
The organization is calling for more people to express their frustration with the situation to the city and county.
This coverage is made possible by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and KUNM listeners.
