Some of the ABQ mayoral hopefuls seem to lack perspective about the amount of money being spent on homelessness. It's not only here that city budgets to address the crisis have soared. Take Tucson, a city similar in size to ABQ: 

(Pima) county reports spending between $50 million and $70 million a year on homelessness. This money comes through federal, state, local, and philanthropic sources, according to a 2023 report from the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness. But Pima County estimates that to reach a “functional zero” homeless population, it would cost between $135.8 million and $158.5 million a year. In 2023, the county reported its homeless population at 2,209, a 1% decrease from 2022 but a 60% increase since 2018. 

That $70 million a year spent on homelessness in Pima County is a bit lower than what the city of ABQ has been budgeting but that spending includes over $100 million to purchase and renovate the Gateway Center for the homeless, a project whose long-term efficacy has yet to be determined 

ABQ also leans on the federal and state governments to help with the substantial annual costs. 

Here's more from Austin:

Austin’s Homeless Strategy Office has proposed more than $100 million in funding for Fiscal Year 2026  to maintain its programs and enhance services. The recommendations were discussed during a recent joint meeting with the city council. David Gray, the director of the city’s Homeless Strategy Office, said there are approximately 6,500 people currently living on the streets.

HOW MANY HOMELESS?

The spending critics don't seem to understand the immense housing crisis in the nation (and world) today. 

This week the state Department of Health released numbers that show a severe undercount in the official number of homeless in the state: 

Department epidemiologists. . .identified 30,882 homeless individuals seeking care. . .The annual number rose from 7,948 in 2019 to 9,168 in 2023, with the highest number in 2022 at more than 10,000 individual patients believed to be homeless. This compares with 3,842 homeless people documented in the state’s “point-in-time count” in 2023 — suggesting the population could be two to four times higher than previously documented.

In Albuquerque the median household income is $65,604, far lower than the income needed for the median priced home of $345,000. To afford that residents need a two income household, a larger down payment or look for lower-priced homes. Neighborhoods in the South Valley have lower prices, reducing the income needed to $60,000–$80,000.

More:

The surge in U.S. home prices has been nothing short of alarming. Over the past five years, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index has climbed by over 50%. More recently, the leading measure of U.S. home prices reported a 3.9% annual return for December 2024. . .The gap in the housing market is significant. A recent report by Realtor.com estimated the U.S. housing shortage to be 3.8 million homes as of 2024.

We've previously reported that the cost of building a subsidized apartment building can easily reach $100,000 or more per unit. Government can spend $10 million and barely see the needle move. 

A TIGHTROPE WALK 

Forcibly removing people from the streets and into mental hospitals or drug treatment is not going to solve the fundamental problem.

Removal is often necessary for public safety and convenience and cities are getting more aggressive in that regard--as they should. But only when society confronts the immense inequality exemplified by a new billionaire class contrasted with a growing lower class is homelessness going to wane. That's why the dilemma has been resistant to solutions for years and during both Democratic and Republican administrations in Washington and ABQ.

Confronting inequity (home availability and prices) in capitalism has always been a tightrope walk. But FDR did it during the Great Depression. Absent a similar effort today ABQ, Austin and other major cities are obligated to spend to manage a homeless plight whose fundamental causes remain politically untouchable.

This is the Home of New Mexico Politics.