Samantha Snyder

Brandon Witherspoon
Benedict
English 219
MWA 2 The Proposal

Introduction

Homelessness is a problem no matter where you go. Its a problem thats been getting
worse over the years, especially in really big towns and cities. Albuquerque is one city in
particular that has been getting negative attention when it comes to the homeless population.
There is also a whole new wave of crime centered on homeless people. Things like shootings,
stabbings and killings of the homeless population has cast a negative light on Albuquerque
alongside the staggering number of people who are without a home in our city. We have
collaborated and come up with a plan to lessen the population and to give them a new outlook
and many new opportunities to get themselves a home in the future. ABQ HOME is a
rehabilitation facility which will house the homeless and give them chances to work for money
and live in a community who can all help each other out through what may be one of the
toughest times of their lives. Getting these people off the streets and in facilities designed to help
them could save their lives. This is the mission of ABQ HOME, to give people a new outlook on
life and to change theirs for the better.

Background & History

ABQ HOME foundation is a homeless outreach program that was founded in 2015 by a
Samantha Snyder, Brandon Witherspoon and a group of volunteers who are passionate to help
the less fortunate in our city. We have worked alongside other homeless shelters such as Joy
Junction to help make living on the streets an easier thing for people to do. Together with our
communitys support, we have done projects such as dinners for the holidays, jacket drives and
handing out care packages for those who lived in the Tent City on 2nd street. ABQ HOME has
wanted to do a larger project to help many people out with more basic needs; like sheltering
those who are willing to participate in a community based rehab facility for the homeless in
Albuquerque. This could not only give people shelter, but could also give them a whole new
outlook on life. This is a crucial chance for change in the homeless population.
We have a small building we had a permit to use in the downtown area. It housed about 5
people. ABQ HOME worked alongside the 5 homeless residents to teach them basic skills in
order to get cleaned up and get a job. We even started a small garden of food grown by the
residents to teach them the importance of responsibility and working together with those around
you to complete a task. Something necessary for maintaining a job. The residents also
participated in group activities and worked in mock jobs like janitors who would clean up the
rooms. Food servers and cooks for the homes cafeteria and more. After about a year, they would
move out and try to get back on their feet. We aim to do this, but on a much larger scale. Having
enough room to house over 100 residents at a time. In time, we hope to even expand on this 100
residents and maybe even doubling or tripling the amount we can hold.

Facts about homelessness in ABQ

An estimated 17,000 people in New Mexico will go without homes in the next year. Most
of which are residents of Albuquerque. Albuquerque is still ranked 5th highest in the nation for
poverty and homelessness; it is the largest city in our state with a population of over 500
thousand people. While that may seem like a drop in the bucket of the overall population, this is
still a problem that needs to be solved. There is also a correlation to the mental wellbeing of the
person and homelessness. Veterans and the mentally ill are accountable for almost 22 percent of
the homeless population. A close second to single parents with one or more children, which was
at 37 percent in a 2012 survey.

Effects
We strive to help those with mental illnesses and incapacities to work, and to help them
change their futures. The effects of a growing homeless population can be quite devastating to
not only the people effected, but the places and things surrounding the homeless population as

well. On average, a homeless person dies at or before age 48. Their lives are 36% shorter than
those who live in a home.1 Homeless people in Albuquerque also have experienced extreme
violence towards them for no apparent reason in the recent years.
In July 2014 a homeless man had fireworks thrown at him from a moving vehicle. He
was badly burned and had to be hospitalized, the people who did this just thought of it as a
prank.2 In 2015 three teenage boys attacked two homeless men while they were asleep. The teens
bludgeoned the men with metal poles and bricks found in the field. The two men died after the
attack.3 We as Albuquerque citizens cannot forget about the shooting of the homeless camper
James Boyd in the mountains by two police officers. Boyd was mentally ill and had lived on the
streets.4 Boyd had also been in and out of jail several times due to his mental illness. This also
was the reason he was trapped, forever to live on the streets of Albuquerque. All of these
incidents were not only made local, but also national. This tarnished our citys image and brought
a great deal of mistrust onto our police force. It even gained the attention of an infamous internet
hacking database known as Anonymous, who threatened to take the cops who shot James Boyd
down. This is not the image our city needs to have, but its the one we have been given in light of
these recent events.

1 http://www.smhc-nm.org/how-you-can-help/understanding-homelessness/ St.
Martins Hospitality Center. 2015
2 http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/two-arrested-albuquerque-burninghomeless-man-fireworks-n397176
3 http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/21/us/new-mexico-teens-murder-charge/
4 http://www.koat.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-the-james-boydshooting-case-file/34430166

There is also the concern of the safety of the homeless population. All of the tent cities
that have been popping up since January of this year are detrimental to not only the campers, but
to the businesses and residents in the surrounding area as well. The cities become overrun with
crime; drugs, prostitution, and theft to name a few. Residents have seen the people using their
front lawns as bathrooms. Businesses have seen a spike in items stolen from their shops, and
even a decrease in people coming in to shop at all.5 The shoppers fear the city and the crime it
had spawned. Tent cities are not the solution to the homeless issue, in fact, they are just creating
a much larger problem. This is where ABQ HOME steps in to help.
PROCESS STEP BY STEP
Our step by step process shows what we believe is necessary to reduce the growing
number of homeless people in the state of New Mexico. We at ABQ Home work in partnership
with Joy Junction which is located in downtown Albuquerque to help shelter and care for the
homeless. The housing plan we have presented to you will help ensure that these people have
some form of residence for a short amount of time. It is while they are living here that we will
give them job opportunities and access to the basic supplies that they will need to live normal
lives. They will have chances to work on mock jobs and alongside other residents to form
community bonds. When they are first brought in, they will be checked in by a doctor to make
sure they are in a relatively healthy state. This will involve a basic routine check-up, if more
serious care is needed, they will be referred to the University of New Mexico Hospital, which is
also a partner of ABQ HOME.

5 http://krqe.com/2015/01/23/abq-officials-to-clear-out-homeless-from-tent-city/ 9
http://news.unm.edu/news/unm-study-reveals-cost-benefits-in-housing-the-homeless

These rehabilitation facilities will be only made available to a person for 30 months. It is
during this time that we will require these residence to pursue the mock jobs offered to them.
Positions such as janitors, food preppers, gardeners and even maintenances people will be
available. These jobs will help to show them what real world functions they will need to work on
in order to be successful when they leave the facility. The residents will work together in order to
solve complex problems and to get their tasks done in a timely and efficient manner. We may
even work out a system of pay which consists of a points system that they can use to buy
treats, magazines and dvds from a store in the housing area. This will reinforce using money you
get from your job to buy things and likely decrease future thefts.
One of the questions many people have asked is how are we going to regulate those
evicted and ensure that they are receiving the help that they need. Each person upon entry into
the facility will give a fingerprint sample and DNA sample, along with this they will each fill out
a form that states they consent to our three strike system. This system grants each resident
three evictions before they are not allowed to reapply for residency for a five year period. Each
resident is given one month to make the transition from the streets and back into society, it is
during this time that they are not required to work. After each eviction or strike, the person must
wait one year before reapplying for residency in the facility. This ensures that people do not take
this system lightly and further enforces our desire to help give our homeless population a fresh
start. Each site is capable of housing 200 residents in small studio like units which measure 495
square feet.10 The goal is to create small communities of people who can slowly move from the
life of homelessness and adjust back into regular life. After they graduate from the facility,
they get a degree of completion and a small party to celebrate their successful transition from the
facility to a new life living in what we hope is their home.

QUALIFICATIONS
We at ABQ Home are a team of individuals who are dedicated to reducing homelessness
within our City. Many of us are born and raised here and we have some members of our team
who were once homeless themselves. They found help in organizations like Joy Junction. These
people are able to relate directly with the homeless population and serve as our testimonial team,
which is tasked with serving as an example of what each person can become. One of the
founders of this cause, Samantha Snyder, an English major with a background in anthropology.
Is here to help assist people. She has worked with local homeless shelters and hospitals as a
volunteer and caretaker. She has what it takes to have not only a gentle hand, but a strong
approach to getting people where they need to be in life. We want to help break their habits of
drug abuse and move them on into rewarding careers in their lives. We work closely with our
community and make it our goal to bring about change not only in the city of Albuquerque, but
also the state of New Mexico. Our team and staff consist of around 50 people who will be our
team working onsite within the facility. They are all passionate about this cause and stop at
nothing to help people out. Our medical team consist of 10 highly trained doctors who work at
the University of New Mexico Hospital and are dedicated to volunteering their time to this cause.
COSTS & BENEFITS
The overall cost of this project would be a cumbersome burden to reach on our own and
with the support of many volunteers and donations, we are able to come up with a large amount
of the smaller expenses which total a great deal of this project. We are looking to the city of
Albuquerque to fund the building of these facilities and the bus transit system needed to help
transport these residents from different areas within immediate closeness to the facilities. A
majority of our staff are paid except for those in the medical fields they are licensed doctors who

donate 3-4 hours on the weekend to make sure each resident has a clean bill of health. The staff
on site consist of a Site Manager who is responsible for the upkeep and wellbeing of the
residents and staff. There are 10 caregivers who cover 20 residents each and are responsible for
keeping the site intact. There are a large number of duties who are given to the residents, this can
range from upkeep of the grounds, to working in the garden centers, to sanitation jobs. We offer
these jobs to our residents and they can in turn use these skill sets to get other jobs along the way.
Each of these areas is managed by a work supervisor who reports to the site manager. At each
site we plan to have 20+ people who work in the supervisory area. We have entered into
contracts with many companies to receive donations which helps us pay our workers and manage
certain costs that arise. At some point we would like to be fully self-functional however because
this is a new initiative it will take some time before things turn out that way.
We are petitioning for the city of Albuquerque to fund an estimated 1.5 million dollars to
build one of the 200 unit apartment complexes. We would like to see how the one will do and if
it is even necessary to build anymore.10 We plan to renew residents every two years which could
potentially lead to 1000 homeless people off of the street and living normal lives in one decade.
If this facility does exceptionally well, we would propose for the building of subsequent facilities
in later years.. Each year we would require an amount totaling 1.7 million dollars to ensure that
the upkeep of these facilities and transit is kept. The pie graph below shows the basic costs of
starting this program and the basic areas to which funding will go. We predict that the basic costs
to begin this project is 4.2 million dollars.10

ABQ Home Start up Cost Summary

Facilites and Transit
donated Medical,
working utensils,
food, etc.

11%
12%
15%

62%

Cost of Site
Employees
Misc. Costs

With the establishment of facilities such as these we project that we can help decrease the
homeless population by a great degree. As stated before we have estimated 17,000 homeless
population in the state and most of them are in Albuquerque.1 With this in mind we have
estimated that our city alone spends $20 million dollars per year to house the homeless.9 While
our costs are somewhat high, we believe that are in fact necessary to help the spending and wellbeing of this city. Its money that may be tacked on to you, as taxpayers, bills. However, you
have the peace of mind that it is going to a noble cause. These expenses of 20 million a year will
likely decrease with these facilities and allow for the city and state to receive more income
because there is a smaller homeless population. In turn the city will save an average of 3 million
dollars per year by using this method.10 Just one of these facilities can potentially help
rehabilitate over 1000 homeless people within 5 years, we plan to build at least 2 in the city of
Albuquerque alone because it is has the largest population of over 500,000 people and has a large
amount of potential job opportunities.

We would like to thank the city of Albuquerque and Mayor Richard Berrys office for
taking the time to read and consider this proposal. \With the increasing number of homeless
people in this state and city, we believe that this is an issue that needs to be highlighted and acted
upon before it becomes more difficult to solve. We would to thank you again for your
consideration in regards to this issue and hearing our concerns. Please consider this as a potential
option to help the people of Albuquerque. Not only the homeless population but also the citywide
population will benefit from the mission of ABQ HOME. Together we can help end
homelessness, because everyone deserves to go home.

________________________________________
10

http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Vehicles/a/How-Much-Does-A-Bus-CostTo-Purchase-And-Operate.htm
11

https://www.cabq.gov/family/documents/albuquerque-homeless-needsassessment-final.pdf

Source Citation

1. http://www.smhc-nm.org/how-you-can-help/understanding-homelessness/ St. Martins

Hospitality Center. 2015.
2. http://www.cabq.gov/family/documents/albuquerque-homeless-needs-assessment3.

final.pdf CABQ. 2012.

http://www.smhc-nm.org/how-you-can-help/understanding-homelessness/ St. Martins

4.

Hospitality Center. 2015

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/two-arrested-albuquerque-burning-homeless-

man-fireworks-n397176
5. http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/21/us/new-mexico-teens-murder-charge/
6. http://www.koat.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-the-james-boyd-shooting-casefile/34430166
7. http://krqe.com/2015/01/23/abq-officials-to-clear-out-homeless-from-tent-city/
8. http://news.unm.edu/news/unm-study-reveals-cost-benefits-in-housing-the-homeless
9. http://publictransport.about.com/od/Transit_Vehicles/a/How-Much-Does-A-Bus-Cost-To10.

Purchase-And-Operate.htm
https://www.cabq.gov/family/documents/albuquerque-homeless-needs-assessment
final.pdf

Multimodal PSA 1