Housing authority, homeless coalition report progress on placements and pilot projects

Council members received committee updates about housing and the homeless coalition, with several speakers describing progress on placements, property improvements and new community pilot ideas.

Councilor Krebs reported the Alamosa Housing Authority is near completion of a fencing and security-lighting project and is monitoring federal budget developments that could affect future funding.

Councilor Dominguez summarized a Homeless Coalition meeting where partners discussed ways to extend access to Saint Ben’s for certain clients through conditional trespass-extension agreements. Dominguez said the police department and partners recently extended six individuals’ access by six months while requiring those individuals to show they are engaging with services; she said four to five additional extensions are under consideration. Dominguez said coalition members discussed working around HIPAA constraints to confirm service engagement without violating privacy rules.

Dominguez also described a youth-driven proposal to create community food cabinets—small, weather- and animal-resistant boxes where neighbors can donate nonperishable food items—saying coalition members volunteered to help design and staff those cabinets. She said perishable items like fresh meat and vegetables would likely be avoided for safety reasons.

On Horizon Heights, Dominguez reported that 29 individuals had been housed and that 10 had moved on to “better scenarios,” including one person who became a homeowner. She said the program’s success rate was reported at about 93 percent; Dominguez prefaced her numbers by saying she did not want them quoted word-for-word because she was taking notes during the meeting.

The coalition also reviewed cleanup work at a mobile home park, including plans this summer to move about a dozen homes and address asbestos where needed. Dominguez said the housing authority has been working to evict nuisances and illegal activity, which coalition members said reduced traffic and disruptions at the mobile home park.

Councilor reports also noted progress on the Boyd Building rehabilitation and a multi-phase tax-credit financing round cited as roughly $6 million in one update; council members said the credits will help move projects forward. Councilor updates closed with an item that La Puente expanded a backpack drive to outlying valley communities to reach children outside Alamosa city limits.

The information was presented as committee updates; no council action or votes were taken during these reports.