By james art 
Oct. 18 — The city of Santa Fe will move away from using a shelter collection model to address homelessness as part of a new “emergency action plan,” the mayor announced Friday.
“Homelessness has changed and the approach to it has to change as well,” Mayor Alan Weber said in an interview.
The city will prioritize smaller, scattered shelter sites, such as the Pallet Shelter Village established earlier this year at Christ Lutheran Church.
A city request for proposals for new pallet shelter locations — or small units where people in the homeless community can be housed individually — closed Friday. City officials said they hope to establish various shelter communities throughout Santa Fe County, some of which may be city-owned.
City spokeswoman Regina Ruiz wrote in an email that officials hope to have the additional sites up and running “within a year.”
“We’re hoping that over time we’ll be able to get everybody into a better or more stable place,” Weber said.
Meanwhile, about 70 to 90 people a night are staying at the Interfaith Community Shelter at Pete’s Place, an overnight shelter on Cerrillos Road that recently began its winter season program. The low-barrier shelter, which allows guests to enter even if they have used drugs or alcohol, was launched as a seasonal emergency shelter about 15 years ago in response to escalating homeless deaths during the cold months, and remains the city’s primary shelter.
Pete’s Place officials said they hope to find a new location to expand the organization’s day resource center so it can connect more people with help and services.
The shelter, located at the intersection of Cerrillos and Harrison roads, has come under increased scrutiny this year after a series of incidents nearby, including the police shooting of a homeless man accused of brandishing a knife at diners at the nearby Café Castro restaurant. Members of the homeless community, many of whom do not spend the night at Pete’s Place, tend to congregate in the neighborhood, drawing the ire of residents and business owners.
The shelter has long leased a city-owned building, but the lease expired this month. Pete’s Place now operates on a monthly basis.
One of the main goals of the city’s new approach to addressing homelessness is to reduce pressure on the Cerrillos Road corridor, Weber said.
The city’s emergency plan has been in the works for several months, the mayor said, and will be overseen by new Community Health and Safety Director Henri Hammond-Paul. Along with increasing pallet shelter locations, it includes a pilot program for a day resource center to connect homeless Santas with services and a “trauma-informed outreach team” that will reach out to homeless people around Cerrillos Road, one of the most – the busy roads in the city.
Weber said the city is considering a temporary location for a pilot day resource center to test the idea, but said it’s too early to cite a possible location.
Word that the interfaith shelter would move into a county-owned building on Airport Road brought hundreds of south side residents to a City Council meeting in August to oppose the plan.
Ruiz did not directly answer whether the city was concerned about community opposition to increasing the number of homeless shelter spaces citywide.
“There is no intention on our part or the Interfaith Shelter to simply take Pete’s and move him to another location,” she wrote in an email in response to the question.
The budget for the mayor’s plan has not been developed, Ruiz added.
Weber said some funding for the project could come from philanthropic organizations or the state of New Mexico.
He will introduce a resolution at the end of the month requiring all shelters in the city to operate on a 24/7 model, the mayor added. Pete’s Place, where customers now have to vacate the premises for a few hours during the day, will instead have to offer all-day service. Weber said the city has also asked the shelter to hire its own security guards to monitor the property.
Interfaith Community Shelter Deputy Director Beverly Kellam said Pete’s Place is seeking funding to hire security guards, but also needs more police presence in the area.
“The police need to get out of their cars and start walking the beat and have more of a presence up and down Cerrillos Road,” she said.
Kellam said the homeless shelter supports the city’s desire to create more pallet shelter communities, although he stressed that such sites do not offer housing.
“They don’t make housing; it’s a shelter,” she said.
Pete’s Place also remains invested in its own goal of opening a larger day resource center, she said, and believes a centralized location for more intensive services is important.
“There will never be a need for another emergency overnight shelter,” Kellam added.
Shelter director Corina Lopez could not be reached for comment Friday.
The executive director of St. Elizabeth Shelters Edward Archuleta, whose organization operates smaller homeless shelters with stricter entry criteria, including sobriety, could not be reached for comment.
Weber said communities across the country are moving away from shelter collection models, and he believes Pete’s Place is too densely occupied.
“Whether it’s fair or not,” he told Pete’s Place, “he’s becoming the face of homelessness in Santa Fe, and that’s not really working for anybody.”