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The coming winter prompted a homeless Albuquerque resident to request an early opening date for a local seasonal shelter.
Clarissa Skeets, a homeless woman living in Albuquerque, started a petition requesting re-elected Mayor Richard Berry to open the West Side homeless shelter on Nov. 1 instead of its regular opening date on Nov. 15.
Skeets said she wants the mayor to open the shelter early because of the cold weather.
“It has gotten cold already,” she said. “There are still people sleeping on the streets. There are pregnant women out there, homeless.”
However, according to the National Weather Service, average October temperatures have been warmer than normal. Last year’s average October temperature was 5.9 degrees above the normal 69 degrees Fahrenheit, and average temperatures in October 2011 were 2.4 degrees above the norm.
According to Accuweather.com, this year’s October has so far continued the trend of having warmer than average temperatures.
Opening the shelter would be cheaper for the city than sending homeless people to jail for sleeping on the streets, Skeets said.
“There’s always talk about budget,” she said. “If businesses are complaining and calling the police on the homeless…the police will come and say ‘You can’t stay here, you have to move on.’ And if a homeless person is incarcerated, it costs more for taxpayers than to put them in a shelter.”
The West Side Homeless shelter is located at the old West Side jail, Skeets said. She said it is 40 miles from Downtown, past 98th Street.
Robin Dozier Otten, director of family and community services for the city of Albuquerque, said in an email that the department keeps track of temperatures to determine when the shelter will be opened.
“We rely strongly on stakeholders and the staff of the Family and Community Services Department to assess the needs of those who are struggling with homelessness to determine when the shelter will begin operations for the winter,” she said.
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Otten said private, public and nonprofit organizations collaborate to operate the Winter Homeless shelter. While the organizations aim to help the homeless, the budget for the shelter remains inflexible, she said.
“Although this shelter came into being as a result of compassion and sensitivity to the needs in our community, the winter shelter is operated by a nonprofit provider within a specific budgeted amount that cannot be exceeded,” she said.
Skeets says Albuquerque Rescue Mission pays for the gas to transport homeless people at UNM to and from the West Side homeless shelter.
“They will put you on a school bus and transport you out there, and they will have you back in town by 6 a.m.,” she said.
The shelter would also provide a safe environment for homeless people, Skeets said. She said homeless people face various health and safety issues when living on the street, such as bugs and other homeless people who may be intoxicated.
“There are even people who drive by in vehicles and throw things at the homeless,” she said. “That’s very degrading. You just get an idea that these people have no respect for the homeless. And there is obviously a stigma about it.”
While Skeets said there are other homeless shelters in Bernalillo County, such as the Barrett House, Joy Junction, Good Shepherd and Albuquerque Rescue Mission, all of these shelters have limitations of some kind.
“(Barrett House) is a waiting list of 25 and it’s a single women and children first,” she said. “There’s also the Joy Junction, which has limited space. They have 100 mats or so, but that gets filled up really quick.”
On Oct. 9, Skeets said she had 111 signatures, most of which were business owners, managers and employees. She said she hopes to obtain at least 200 before submitting the petition.
The Family and Community Services Department will continue to watch the weather to determine when to open the West Side, Otten said.
“Each year, we will monitor the weather and collect feedback from our stakeholders so that the Winter Shelter is opened at the appropriate time,” she said.
