ALBUQUERQUE, NM (KRQE) – Mayor Tim Keller vetoed the moratorium against sanctioned homeless camps last Friday. Now the city council is looking to overturn it. The empty lot adjacent to the Bethlehem Baptist Church on Bluewater Road already got denied once, but Mayor Keller’s veto has the church’s pastor and other similar applicants hoping the veto will stay.
“It’s going to help what I call the working homeless, and people don’t seem to realize they are working homeless. And I tried to explain this to some of the people in the neighborhood that we’re not just going to have people come in and mix up the tents and camps and just be up and do nothing. No, no, no, that’s not, that’s not what we’re trying to do,” said Bethlehem Baptist Church Pastor Dennis Hubbard.
City Councilors passed the year-long delay on any sanctioned encampments on August 15 by a 6-3 vote. Unfortunately for Pastor Hubbard, his two applications for the city-sanctioned encampments, the one located on Bluewater road and the second on Wheeler near Broadway, didn’t make the cut. After the veto, Pastor Hubbard is hopeful, but those against it say this is not the solution to homelessness.
“Why do they want to have homeless encampments anyway?” added Hubbard. “I just don’t agree that we have the city services and the funding to meet the needs of the people that are unsheltered in our city right now, and this administration needs to utilize the resources,” said Councilor Dan Lewis.
He says it is evident the council doesn’t support the city-sanctioned encampments and believes there are enough votes to override the mayor’s veto. The council would need six votes to overturn it. Council is expected to vote on the mayor’s veto on Sept. 7.
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