04-05-2025
'Leaner and meaner': Nonprofit makes aggressive efforts to preserve low-income housing
Standing near a neon sign that shines at night along a central stretch of Cerrillos Road, Lori Potter Kimball and Robert Wagner reflected on the long journeys that led them to an apartment complex they call home.
Kimball was on a waiting list for about four years before a spot came open at the Stage Coach Apartments in Santa Fe, a converted former motel that now serves as quiet and comfortable housing, she said.
Wagner, one of her neighbors, was homeless and trekked to Santa Fe from Nashville, walking long stretches with Lily, his amiable pit bull, who was not allowed aboard buses.
"I'd be homeless," Wagner said, if not for these apartments and the assistance he receives as a veteran through a federal housing aid program.
Stage Coach, long the home of the Stage Coach Motor Inn, is one of a limited number of housing options for low-income Santa Feans, converted into affordable apartments about a decade ago. It's featured among the growing list of properties in the portfolio of the Santa Fe Civic Housing Authority, a more than 60-year-old independent nonprofit that plays a critical role in trying to address a housing affordability crisis that continues to plague the city.
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Ed Romero, executive director of the Santa Fe Civic Housing Authority, at La Resolana Senior Apartments in Santa Fe last week.
Increasing its inventory in recent decades — with new projects in the pipeline to preserve the affordable housing stock for low-income residents — the nonprofit is one of just a few housing authorities in New Mexico that remain active in development activities, Executive Director Ed Romero said.
He believes his organization is "leaner and meaner and more directed, perhaps, than a typical city housing authority might be."
"Santa Fe is a tough town right now" when it comes to rising rent prices, Romero said, and his organization intends to "ensure that there is affordable housing."
Projects in the pipeline
The Santa Fe Civic Housing Authority has ownership stake in about 1,400 units, most in Santa Fe, and also is tasked with administering federal Housing Choice aid vouchers — previously known as Section 8 vouchers — through U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Founded in 1962 as a division of the city of Santa Fe before breaking off in 1989, the publicly funded organization is involved with about 15 properties in the region, most in Santa Fe, and manages a number of them.
In its pipeline are a series of projects — including construction of the new 60-unit Ocate Apartments on the city's south side and the rehabilitation and expansion of Country Club Apartments on Airport Road, bringing it to 84 units.
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An early rendering of the Santa Fe Civic Housing Authority's Ocate Apartments, which it plans to build with the help of a $16.2 million low-income housing tax credit approved by the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority.
The authority partners with other entities to help build or remodel affordable housing using the federal government's Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program. It also seeks to control properties that offer affordable housing so those units remain in that status.
The housing authority received nearly $29 million in tax credits in May from the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority, also known as Housing New Mexico, including $12.4 million for the renovation of Country Club Apartments.
Romero said the housing authority hopes to start construction on Ocate Apartments soon so units can be leased by the end of 2026. The project will cost $22.7 million, with $14.2 million in tax credits.
The organization recently purchased for $2.75 million the "general partnership" of three Santa Fe affordable housing apartment complexes with a combined 205 units. The authority will be the general partner in these agreements, owning less than 1% of the complexes, while the limited partners will receive tax credits.
The partnerships for the 83-unit Soleras Station off Rail Runner Road, the 62-unit Village Sage across from Capital High School and the 60-unit Stage Coach Apartments were purchased by the housing authority late last year.
"What we've done is we've taken over the responsibility to manage these properties for the rest of their [land use restriction agreements] period, in accordance with the limited partnership, so that our limited partner can continue to receive their tax credits," Romero said, adding the goal is to keep affordable units "affordable forever."
The organization is trying to find a way to bring 44 acres it owns off Rufina Street into play over the next two years, he said, noting part of it falls within the bounds of Agua Fría village, a state-designated traditional historic community, on one side of the street.
"Their zoning requirements are pretty tight — three units to an acre," Romero said. "To do affordable housing, you need 20 units to an acre, so that side street probably won't develop a lot of affordable housing. It might just turn into a homeownership kind of place, and a small affordable apartment complex, maybe nine to 12 units."
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Country Club Apartments on Airport Road has become so old that the property is going to need 'a complete remodel down to the studs," said Ed Romero, director of the Santa Fe Civic Housing Authority.
The portion of the 44-acre property on the other side of the street is within city limits, and the organization wants to do something bigger there, such as 200-unit complex, Romero said.
"In the meantime, we just hope for better economic days so we can pull that project off," he said.
While the housing authority also administers federal vouchers — about $9 million worth in 2024 — the waitlist for the program has closed; inflation and rising rent costs have raised concerns there will not be enough HUD money to cover costs for those already in the program.
"We're concerned that we are not going to have enough subsidy to get through this year, and we don't know what's going to happen next year," Romero said of the vouchers. "Even if we had someone on the waitlist, we can't house anybody for the foreseeable future in the voucher program."
Residents feel priced out
It is easy to rattle off the ominous statistics for many living in the City Different or looking to move here: The average home price has risen by almost 70% since 2018 — with a median price of $570,000 in the first quarter of 2025, according to the Santa Fe Association of Realtors. The website RentCafe reported the city's average monthly rent cost is $1,785.
Accessing federal aid to help cover rent payments isn't easy.
Eddie Padilla and his wife, Jessica Padilla, lifelong residents of Santa Fe, live in an unsubsidized unit at the Country Club Apartments.
That could change soon.
Although many who live in the complex receive federal housing vouchers, Eddie Padilla said he does not qualify for the aid. He works two jobs — as a meat cutter and a caregiver — and still struggles to cover his rent and other costs of living in the city where he grew up.
"I consider myself middle class. I make OK money, but being able to pay $2,500 for two bedrooms — I can't do that," Padilla said.
"I use to live downtown, and I had to move away because rent [was up to] $2,000, $3,000, you know. I'm on the outskirts now. Before you know it, I'm going to be in Albuquerque," Padilla said.
Jessica Padilla agreed — and believes it's the longtime residents of Santa Fe, families who have lived in the city for generations, who are being priced out the most.
"The people who have been here for so long, we can't live here anymore because of it," she said, adding it seems a higher volume of people are moving into the city from outside the state.
"What's happening with that is they are pushing all of us out," her husband added.
"We're already considering moving to another town because we can't afford to live here anymore," he said. "I'm working two jobs and we're barely making it. You go try to go get help from somewhere, and they're like, 'Nope, you don't qualify; you make too much money.' '
Long wait for a home
Susan Hayes, a tenant at the Stage Coach Apartments, appreciates the aesthetics of the place, with its old neon "Stage Coach Motor Inn" sign on Cerrillos Road. A framed poster for the 1971 cult classic Two-Lane Blacktop, a road movie starring James Taylor that was filmed on Cerrillos Road, hangs on the wall of the office.
Hayes moved back to Santa Fe from Pecos in 2021 when her rental situation there fell through. She feared she would have to sleep in her car because of the high housing costs, but someone suggested she call the Stage Coach Apartments.
"It's affordable for me," Hayes said of the complex. "I know a lot of it is a sliding scale, depending on what your income is, because I know I pay more than some people but less than others."
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The Stage Coach Apartments on Cerrillos Road. The longtime motel has been converted to low-income housing.
She added, "There's so little in the way of housing that's affordable. It's always been terrible in Santa Fe. It's just a really expensive place to live if you're an ordinary person with an ordinary job."
Kimball, a retired caregiver, feels she has one of the best units at Stage Coach, but she knows well how daunting the waitlists can be to get into such places. While waiting for a unit to open up, she lived with a woman she had been caring for.
Kimball had another client who lived at the Stage Coach with a housing voucher. She decided she wanted to live there, too. But the waitlist was long.
Kimball waited nearly four years for a unit.
"People come in here and they stay," she said, adding she "never gave up" during those years of waiting.
"For us people on Social Security, it's subsidized. So I pay $480, plus my electricity and my water, for this beautiful place," Kimball said of her two-room unit.
"It's a dollhouse. I love it," she said.
