City of Santa Fe announces plans to terminate lease at Interfaith Community Shelter for homeless services

Yahoo

4 days ago

After a week of speculation about the future of the Interfaith Community Shelter's lease to serve homeless people at a city-owned building commonly known as "Pete's Place," Santa Fe officials announced Friday they will ask city councilors to terminate the deal.
"No one will be left without a place to go," city Community Health and Safety Director Henri Hammond-Paul said in a statement Friday, adding it is "not a decision we recommend lightly."
The shelter, which opened at the site in 2009, long has created controversy, with business owners and residents in the Siler-Rufina neighborhood expressing frustration with what they describe as increasing drug use and trafficking and other criminal behaviors by people who congregate near the shelter. A news release announcing the city's decision describes the conditions surrounding the shelter as "intolerable," saying police responded to 3,200 calls for service in the area in 2024. The situation has worsened.
"If current rates continue, 2025 is projected to result in approximately 4,050 police calls for service, 1,854 proactive police actions, 729 fire department calls, and $1.95 million in fire department response costs," the news release says.
If the City Council approves a lease termination at a special meeting Tuesday, the Interfaith Community Shelter's time at the Cerrillos Road building will end July 31. The nonprofit has been operating the facility on a monthly contract with the city since its last multiyear lease expired in October.
The city plans to request a one-year emergency contract with Urban Alchemy, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that hires formerly incarcerated people, to operate the homeless shelter while the city evaluates whether the site at Cerrillos and Harrison roads is an "appropriate" long-term location, according to a news release.
A $7.9 million contract for street outreach and public safety services with Urban Alchemy was introduced at Wednesday's City Council meeting and also could get a final vote Tuesday. An agenda for the special meeting was not yet posted on the city's website Friday morning.
City Manager Mark Scott wrote in an email Friday the one-year contract for Urban Alchemy to operate the shelter would be a separate deal for $1.5 million that would take effect after the Interfaith Community Shelter's lease ends.
The Interfaith Community Shelter's total yearly budget is about $1.6 million, including about $158,000 from the city; the city has reduced that amount to $80,000 for the upcoming fiscal year.
The city's news release does not explain why officials believe the homeless shelter would be managed better by an out-of-state contractor than by the local nonprofit.
During a recent joint operation with New Mexico State Police, the city news release alleges, surveillance revealed "ongoing illegal activity in and around the shelter."
Interfaith board member Wendy Rhema said Friday she "vehemently" disagreed with the city's claim there has been illegal activity inside the shelter, noting it has a video surveillance system and a security guard monitoring the fenced-in premises.
"If somebody lights up or even pulls out drugs, they're kicked off the property immediately," she said.
City officials did not immediately respond to questions regarding whether they will continue to operate the facility as a low-barrier shelter — meaning they don't require sobriety or background checks — or if they will change the requirements for guests.
Rhema said shelter leaders were told in a Friday morning meeting with Scott and Hammond-Paul it would be a low-barrier facility and would have 24/7 admittance, and that Urban Alchemy would use the property's outdoor space as a place for people to congregate.
Rhema said she wondered whether people would be allowed to use or sell drugs on city property, as those activities draw people to congregate in the area outside the shelter.
Urban Alchemy is active in some cities with the nation's most endemic problems with homelessness, including San Francisco; Oakland, Calif.; Los Angeles; and Portland, Ore.
It has attracted criticism in a number of cities where it operates, including a 2024 lawsuit from a former resident of an Urban Alchemy-run site in Sausalito, who alleged staff were dealing drugs and having sex with residents, according to reporting in the San Francisco Standard. In another lawsuit, a San Francisco supervisor was accused of sexually harassing several female staff members. Representatives from Urban Alchemy described both lawsuits as baseless in statements to the press.
The city of Santa Fe said in a statement it appreciates the work of the Interfaith Community Shelter, whose leaders said this week they felt "blindsided" by rumors the nonprofit's contract would be ending.
"The City is committed to working with Interfaith Community Shelter to help them continue their important work in our community," the city said in a news release. "We hope their board, volunteers, and supporters in the Interfaith Leadership Alliance will come together to identify a new location — one that aligns with their mission and allows them to thrive independently."
The shelter for the past year has been working on efforts to find a new site for a new Resource Opportunity Center in a nonresidential area of Santa Fe.
How much of its mission the shelter will be able to accomplish without a building is uncertain. The shelter currently has 24 paid staff, all of whom Rhema said likely will be laid off if the lease is terminated, and some 2,000 volunteers.
She noted she was given a vague response from city officials about whether Urban Alchemy might hire some of the shelter's current employees.
The Interfaith Community Shelter has several other contracts with the city to provide services for the homeless. It serves as the fiscal agent for the Consuelo's Place shelter in a former dorm building at the city-owned midtown campus on St. Michael's Drive, operates a "Showers To Go" service in a mobile hygiene unit, operates a program that houses about 25 long-term shelter guests in a local hotel and serves as the hub for the city's "Code Blue" emergency operations in freezing temperatures.
How this work would be affected by the termination of its lease was not immediately clear.
This is a developing story. Check back for more details.