Recently, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham stood alongside Las Cruces Mayor Eric Enriquez and Councilor Johana Bencomo to break ground on the new Amador Crossing homeless housing project. At a cost of $12-15 million dollars for 50 apartments, this project will cost taxpayers $240,000-$300,000 per unit. That’s a steep price, especially since most of the units will be single-room efficiency apartments.
More than the price, I’m concerned about the outcomes of this project. The city plans for some of the apartments be dedicated to sober living. The other units will function like traditional apartments, where tenants are free to do whatever they want behind closed doors. However, given the population that will be housed in these apartments, I think this is a huge mistake. Housing people who are trying to get sober right next to those who are allowed to continue using drugs is horribly short-sighted.
We have already seen the results of that at the Desert Hope homeless housing project, which has housed at least two drug dealers over the last few years. One drug dealer was written about extensively by independent journalist Ital Iman, who moved into Desert Hope because he was struggling with finances and housing himself. Iman detailed that the environment at the Desert Hope apartment complex was filled with incessant drug use, fighting and chaos. “I have seen this place in the span of six months go from a very beautiful renovation... [to] the very pit of hell, full of drugs and drug use, a cesspool of mentally ill persons.” And former Desert Hope resident Darrell Williamson reported that he faced threats of violence and drugs right outside his door there.
People cannot turn their lives around and break free of addiction in such an environment. Meanwhile, the nearby neighborhood has been devastated by property damage, theft, break-ins, aggression, drug paraphernalia and dirty needles left in people’s yards. People living and working near Desert Hope fear for their safety and the safety of their children, who can no longer walk to school or play in their front yards.
It's not compassionate to enable people to continue destroying their lives and health with drugs. And it’s the duty of the city to ensure that our community is a safe place to live and work. The city’s metrics for success at Amador Crossing need to aim for people to actually reform their lives, become free of their drug addiction and move towards independence.
According to the San Antonio Haven for Hope, which serves 7,000 homeless people yearly, giving housing without sobriety requirements only works for 15 percent of people. 85 percent of people need different kinds of stability before they move into housing.
An example of a successful program that could be emulated at Amador Crossing is the Ready to Work program at Boulder Bridge House in Colorado. Ready to Work combines dormitory-style, sober living alongside extensive job readiness training and supportive services. After one year, people graduate from that program ready for employment and permanent housing. The program has a 74 percent success rate for people maintaining employment and independence.
According to Dustin, who was formerly homeless and addicted to drugs, Ready to Work “teaches you how to be responsible and accountable for your behavior. The Work First part builds self-efficacy through actually doing something with yourself. That’s what works.”
It’s not too late to prevent Amador Crossing from turning into another mess like Desert Hope. To ensure a better outcome, we need to do things differently. The Las Cruces City Council should make the entire Amador Crossing project into a Ready to Work program, for the good of the residents themselves and the overall community.
Sarah Smith is co-leader of the New Mexico Freedoms Alliance and Vice Chair of the Coalition of Conservatives in Action in Las Cruces.