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This is Fronteras: A Changing America.

I'm KC Counts, Thank you for joining us.

In the United States between 2023 and 2024.

Homelessness increased by 18%, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

With over 770,000 people experiencing homelessness.

In Las Cruces, the Mesill Valley Community of Hope reports 317 people were sleeping outdoors in January of 2025.

That's according to the point in time or PIT count.

We'll learn more about how that data is collected and what Mesilla Valley community of Hope does to combat homelessness.

With Executive Director Nicole Martinez.

Later in the program, KRWG Public Media, Local News fello Abigail Salas will introduce us to an effort that aims to provide a needed space for unhoused individuals to keep their belongings while keeping the memory of a local artist alive.

Nicole, welcome to KRWG Public Media.

Thank you.

I'm happy to be.

Nice to have you back.

Let's begin with that point in time count, and maybe you can tell us a little bit about how that's done.

Sure.

We do trainings with the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness so that the whole state is united in countin how many unhoused people we have that are sleeping outside that might not be sheltered.

So last year we have surveys that are again organized by the New Mexic Coalition and homelessness and, partnership with HUD and some of our funder and how we collect information.

So our staff, we have a whole outreach team that, is through a grant that we have through the city of Las Cruces.

I have four staff on that team, a couple with lived experience as unhoused people.

And they, on a day to day basis, go out and make connections and outreach to people who are surviving outside.

It might be people who are accessing services that Community of Hope, an it might be people who are not.

So during the, month of January, the PIT count is always on a particular day in January, but we take extra time, typically about a week, to gather information on what we do is the outreach team and other staff of Community of Hope, who all get trained on how to do this and how to administer the survey.

Go out and talk to all of our our unhoused neighbors, and, and ask them if they would engage in the survey.

And they ask them questions from the survey, but importantly, they ask, where were you on the night of January?

Such and such.

And if they answered that they were outside and they agreed to take the survey, then all of that is collected.

We are also collecting how many people say that they're not interested in doing the survey.

But last year's total was 317, that also included our shelter camp Hope.

because people are sleeping outside at camp Hope.

Although we would say it's a step up from people who don't have the safety and security of being at a place like camp Hope.

So to us, you know, 317 seems like a really solvable number in our community.

How does that number compare to the number of people who choose not to take part?

Well, we had somewhere around the number of 200 and something, peopl who agreed to take the survey.

So the majority of the people were agreeing to take the survey for the point in time count so that we could see, who in our area is experiencing homelessness and what other, things were surrounding thei homelessness, their needs, or, you know, what?

What brought them to their situation and in those, interactions, our outreach team can also address a lot of issue that are happening with people who are sleeping outside such as, do you need a blanket?

Do you need water?

Do you need to enroll in camp Hope?

Do you need housing?

Have you don mano y mano day labor services?

So it's an opportunity to, not only get people to engage in the survey, but to also, do that outreach and provide those services.

You mentioned some of the folks who are doing this work have experienced, being unhoused.

How how does that dynamic help the research project in general?

I believe that it helps establish rapport, that it's in some sense a peer to peer.

saying, you know hey, I was once where you were, I accepte services with community of Hope and some other, partner agencies.

really love to help you you know, get back on your feet you know.

We really try to utilize a trauma informed care lens and part of that includes, having people on our staff with lived experience who understand what it's like and who understand, how hard it can b to sleep outside or to ask for help or to trust anyone trying to offer you services.

What other ways is homelessness being tracked other than the PIT count?

The community of Hope has federal funding and some state funding.

We also have city funding, and we have to collect data for each of the grants that we have, depending on what that service is.

So, for example, we have HU funding for housing individuals.

We utilize a software program called Homeless Management Information Systems, HMIS.

It's required that we enter information about our clients into that database.

There's a time frame for when we have to enter that information and we're we're really collecting a lot of information about, outcomes.

And, you know, did we serve as many people as we sai we would serve with this grant?

Did we expend all the money?

Some of those benchmarks that our granters are looking for is did people stay long enough and did they, maintain or did they increase their income?

And in each of those programs, we're we're happy to say that staff work so hard that we have either met or exceeded those benchmarks.

How many staff are working on those types of research projects?

Overall, we have 44 staff.

I probably have maybe 25 that are utilizing, either housing grants, or outreach grants, housing navigation grants.

we have other funding sources that don't require that we utilize homeles management information systems.

So at this point, we also have an internal database that we utilize.

We're also partnering with software company to introduce Salesforce or another, way to track data that is going to incorporate both HMIS and our internal database.

At the beginning of the program, I mentioned a statistic, about the growth of homelessness from 2023 to 2024, 18%, with over 770,000 people, being homeless in that PIT count, have you seen an increased need locally?

The data tells us that we are serving a lot more people than we have ever served.

I think there are a few things happening.

Yes, I think mor people are entering homelessness even though we are exitin homelessness for a lot of people by getting people housed, getting them income.

But we just can't keep up with the number of peopl who are entering homelessness.

And a lot of that has to do with since the pandemic, we saw, the prices of rents just soar.

Another thing is that we have gotten really good at collecting data.

So I feel like, you know, now that staff is so trained in, there's such a collected effort in doing the point in time count.

and in making sure that we are getting everybody to fill out information when they come into community of hope, even, even if they're going to the restroom.

You know, we really try to get them to sign in so that we can coun how many people we are serving.

So we know that we have, really collected more information.

We also are offerin more services than we ever have.

So an outcome of that that we would expect is that we would see that our numbers have risen.

And it doesn't necessarily mean people who are experiencing homelessness also people on the brink of homelessness.

We had some state funding from our legislators that allowed us to help people with, homeless prevention.

So people who are about to be evicted or about to become homeless, we could we could stall that and make that not happen.

That funding has since been expended.

But when we see the new grant applications for, HUD housing coming forward I think that we're going to need to pay a lot more attention to homeless prevention.

So tell me about the work that's being done with the near homeless populatio and and how you kind of find out who those folks ar and what is done to intervene.

We have a couple of grants that address, people who are, near homelessness at imminent risk of homelessness.

And we try to prevent that.

Some of that funding comes through the state, housing New Mexico.

We also have some tha specifically for our veterans.

So families will come in, individuals will come in.

And what they will demonstrate is that they are about to become homeless in the way that we can make sure that we're following up.

Getting third party verification for that is typically people will have possibly a court ordered eviction.

They may have a letter from somebody that they've been staying with that says that they no longer can stay in that unit and so at that point, then staff then make sure that they are eligible, that we can either keep them in that unit or seamlessly transition them from that unit to another uni so that they don't have to enter homelessness in between that.

How?

Well.

Let's talk about the folks that come to Mesilla Valley community of Hope and where they're coming from, like wha kind of area across the region does Mesilla community of Hope serve?

Well, a lot of our funding is to serve people as they present themselves.

It doesn't say prioritize who's from Las Cruces or from New Mexico.

Serve them first.

It's serve people that come to your doorstep.

I would say that for every person that comes to us from another area, somebody from Las Cruces is accessing services in another community.

I've run into.

Clients are people from Las Cruces who are getting services somewhere else.

So I know that that is true.

I also know that, you know, the city of Las Cruces is has some major, you know, infrastructure, highways and freeways.

And so it's a place where we do see people that might break down.

Interestingly, you know, I think, there were some surveys that were done in Taos, and we're starting to mirror that.

We've asked that this be added to our point in time count.

So instead of saying, asking somebody like, are you from here?

A better way to ask that is how long have you been here?

And what Taos found was that, you know, most of the people they were serving weren't from here, but they'd lived in that community for 5 to 10 years and then became homeless.

I would also say, you know, I'm I'm not from here.

but I've lived here a long time.

So if I were to find myself in that predicament, you know, we would want the data to reflect how long people have lived here and why they became unhoused Earlier you mentioned veterans.

We've been talking about people maybe moving around, that may be considered vulnerable populations.

Can you talk a little bi about how you define vulnerable populations and what that means in the landscape?

Sure.

Typically we define vulnerable populations.

That would include people wh are experiencing homelessness.

So they're, you know, vulnerable to a lot of things, to illness, to the elements outside, to even hate crimes, things like that.

We also, you know, include a lot of people that we serve that are experiencin homelessness, have disabilities.

We also have a lot of veterans that we've been serving.

last year we served over 580, veterans and, have been able to transition many of them into housing and then also keep them, those that were about to become homeless, safe in their own units.

Earlier you mentioned families, you know, with, a low income family, for example.

How often are you seeing family units experiencing homelessness or being near homeless?

I would say all too often we do have a lot of families coming to u who are sleeping in their car, who are about to becom homeless, who might be staying at another shelter that accepts families.

We do have funding, and I have, caseworkers that wor specifically with our families and so they assess that situation, you know, document what that homelessness looks like for that family and then immediately, enroll them into housing.

Oftentimes, what we all have to use do is utilize, motel voucher, until we can get the family into a safe and secure housing unit.

Let's talk about some of those, housing units and, some of the programs tha Mesilla Valley community of Hope employs to get people into homes, maybe beginning with Desert Hope.

Sure.

So, Desert Hope is, a property that is owned by the Mesilla Valley Public Housing Authority.

There are 40 units, and they are all set aside for people who experienced homelessness for a certain amount of tim and have a permanent disability.

So people who meet that HUD definitio for permanent supportive housing that have been chronically homeless.

Now, this partnership als included the city of Las Cruces.

So we wanted to take our, you know, clients who had been on the streets for a long time with their permanent disabilities and get them housed.

Rhere are subsidies on those units provided by the Housing Authority.

And our commitment to the project was to ensure that we had people, ready to move into the unit and that we have staff on site to provide supportive services for the clients.

So we don't address, we're no responsible, I should say, for, you know, lease enforcement, things like that.

But our staff also is familiar with the lease that they can help the clients observe and make sure that they're following the lease with compliance.

But there is a property manager on site.

There wasn't for the first year but there has been since then.

They really are doing the lease compliance stuff where my staff can then focus on do you have food security?

Do you need a food box?

Have you set up your mental health appointments?

Are you taking medication?

Do you need to reunify with your family?

Have you seen your doctor lately?

Have you seen a dentist?

So they're able to provide the supportive services and transportation and things like that to make sure that the clients are staying there.

and then work with the property manager to make sure tha there is the least compliance, to ensur that people are stably housed.

And we've seen over the year tracking through that HMIS syste that we are meeting those HUD benchmarks and, and in some cases exceeding the threshold.

in fact, one of, you know, our, our staff was somebody with lived experience for a long time and has lived at Desert Hope the whole time and is now staff at Community of Hope.

Recently, it was announced that funding for housing, for individuals like the ones that would be served by Community of Hope, would be redirected, right from the federal government.

How concerned are you about what that will mean?

for Mesilla Valley Community of Hope?

I'm wildly concerned, The way that the notice of fundin opportunity has been presented, does have a lot of obstacles, not only for the clients that we serve, bu also has staffing implications.

We've also seen that a lot of the elements that are inside of that funding opportunity, we will not be able to score high as a state of New Mexico to bring in funding to end homelessness or to keep people housed, because there are certain provisions in there that just aren't applicable in New Mexico, for example, you know, that we have to demonstrate we would get more points if we were involuntarily committing people.

And the state of New Mexico doesn't necessarily have laws that would support something like that.

that's just one example, but there are several where, we're concerne that the funding will go away.

Just because the laws don't agree with what that funding source looks like.

When we get down to what those vouchers look like in the funding loss, there is a huge shift away from permanent supportive housing, which we have seen has been super effective in ending homelessness.

It it houses people, the, funding opportunities that we see presented to us now, our focus is toward things like transitional housing, which falls under the definition of keeping people homeless.

So it means things like shelter, it also means making sure that, we have strong commitments with law enforcement and that people are getting treatment first before they can access, any housing.

We really feel like puttin people into units and offering those treatment services should be hand in hand.

and so we've just seen a big push away from that permanent supportive housing.

We have a lot of vouchers that are funded through permanent supportive housing.

We also have rapid rehousing, which is two years of assistance.

and then people take over their rent themselves and they stay house.

That's also, not listed in, in the notice of funding.

So we have 22 families at a time that we're helping with that grant.

So, you know, a lot of concern and over, you know, at least 200 with our permanent supportive housing.

and then you think about the staffing cuts that would also come to our community.

So you can imagine that there would be a lot of vulnerable people going bac to the streets because of how, the administration is changing that funding source.

I want to get back to funding and some legislative goals in just a few minutes.

But first, back to the PIT count and you talked about people going in to place where unhoused individuals are, talking to them about maybe things that they need and, what are the specific needs, that you would like for people to know abou during the winter, for example?

Thanks for that question.

Yeah, winter can be a really tough time.

So we always, are looking for things like sleeping bags, blankets, jackets, long underwear.

There are also these things called hot hands that you can, you know warm up your hands and and toes, with those.

Ultimately, we we don't want people to die on the streets, being exposed to the elements.

So really tryin to keep people warm, you know, if their sweaters or jackets that you're not utilizing.

Gloves, hats please feel free to bring what you're not using or have them shipped from Amazon, directly to Community of Hope and our outreach team will make sure that those are distributed to all the people outside who could really utilize those things.

So how would people get those items to the individuals that need them?

Donors are welcome to come drop off donations directly to Community of Hope or to camp Hope.

People can also send in financial contributions they can do that online or mail us a check.

And another way is to go to an online source and order things for people and have those shipped directly to Community of Hope.

And then our outreach team will ensure that people are getting the the item that have been donated.

Alright.

KRWG Public Media, local new fellow Abigail Salas introduces us to an effort that aims to provide a needed space for unhoused individuals to keep their belongings while keeping the memory of a local artist alive.

Lauren Rosenberg and Donald Wilson randomly bumped into each other at a Mother's day party.

Wilson ended up telling Lauren about this issue that had been brought to his attention.

Some kind of a way that people that are unhoused can have a way to secure their belongings.

The municipal court told Donald that they were having trouble with unhoused individuals, not showing up.

The reason they weren't showing up was because they had no place to store their belongings.

So Donald was lookin for a solution to this problem.

And Lauren came with a different perspective.

I, separately from this, was looking for a project to memorialize my husband, who had passed away in 2020, and who was really involved in the cycling community in Las Cruces.

He was a sculptor and a performance artist name is Bob Hepner.

After brainstorming, they came up with an idea that would help people store their belongings, but also commemorate Bob.

And that idea was to create six carts.

And my idea was that these carts would be really visible and that professional artists would make them, and that people who had the least would have this really the best art and the way that the publi could see it was just in motion.

Going through the city.

SABA is a graffiti artist.

He puts on the fine arts flea market that happens every first Friday of every month.

And this is where he started painting his cart.

SABA displayed the cart at the market and let people paint on it.

He drew a landscape using the people's different drawings.

The sand, you know, from everything, has a beginning and an end.

So this is kind of that in between.

The in between and the process is, is the, the life, you know, we're in right now.

You know, we're happening.

It's creating.

So it's cool to just kind of build with the people and then, you know, put it together.

He also knew Bob.

Nothing ever lasts forever, right?

Kind of with this our good friend passed away.

Right.

So it's like we got to remember that and how it changed his life and worked with it.

And, you know, because I'm an artist.

So it changed my life.

The question on both Lauren and Donald's mind was ho to get the cards out to people.

So they reached out to the city and Community of Hope.

We sent them videos, we ha photos of the carts in progress and they said, absolutely, we would love to receive these carts.

The outreach team at Community of Hope will choose who will get a cart.

Normally they give out donated luggage and wagons.

Nicole Martinez is executiv director at Community of Hope.

I was really excited to hear about this project for a number of reasons.

First, it's just amazing when people in our community want to give back, to our, our unhoused neighbors.

I think it's really important that, you know, we're we're thinking about the struggles that people go through outside when they don't have ways to store their belongings.

And Las Cruces Ordinance 3079, known as a shopping cart ordinance, prohibits people from removing a shopping cart from the retail premises where it is used for shopping purposes.

It went into effect August 16th of last year.

Enforcement began in October.

We've seen that people have had a harder time keeping their belongings with them.

They tend to then go through donations a lot faster.

Lauren says her idea has turned into something bigger than expected, and she says this type of project shows what community can do when it comes together.

Everybody I've worked with has had such a big heart and they really just love the project.

Some of them knew Bob o were friends friendly with Bob, so they knew that his connection to all these different, causes and events and then artists just started making them, and it was kind of extraordinary.

The project is just grown and grown and grown, and at this point, we're kind of almost done.

The project has finally wrapped up, and to mark the end the carts were shown at the Fine Arts Flea market for the community to see.

The carts were driven around and parked on stage by Vela Cruces members.

They can now be distributed and may be seen around the community for KRWG Public Media I'm Abigail Salas.

So I'm with Nicole Martinez the executive director of Mesill Valley Community of Hope, and seeing how the community responds to those in need is pretty inspiring.

Talk a little bi about what you've seen in terms of, community investment and support at Mesilla Valley, Community of Hope.

Well, I can say that it would be so much more difficult to do the the work that we're doing if we didn't have the support of the community.

I'm always amazed on a daily basis by the generosity of our community, and the donors and people who take time.

I know there are a lot of options and worthy causes, in our community.

and there are always some standout projects that, you know, people have taken on to ensure that people who are surviving outsid have the things that they need.

Let's get back t funding and legislative goals.

As the New Mexico Legislature head into another session in January, probably more than ever, there are more needs, for legislators to consider.

What are some of your hopes, for what will come out of this legislative session for your organization?

Yeah.

You know, last year we had a really big push to get some legislative support for housing endeavors.

You know, we are in the process of building 50 units of supportive housing on the Community of Hop campus called Amador Crossing.

So our legislators have been, realizing that, you know, housing is a real issue here.

This year, you know, in terms of campus projects, you know, we're trying to support, Casa de Peregrinos and El Caldito Sou kitchen who are working to build something that's called the kitchen.

So that essentially will have a new El cCaldito soup kitchen to serve people, in a more effective way because they've really outgrown their space.

We're also talking to our legislators about the the coming cuts that we're seeing from our federal government as it relates to housing and staffing, and where we think they can help fill the gap.

Also, talking to our city partners about what that might look like.

and so at this point, we're just trying to compile, all of the data that we need to make sure that we are establishing rapport and, talking to the legislators we need who can help us push forward some of these priorities to make sur that we don't have more people, returning to homelessness and also people entering homelessness.

What brought you into this line of work?

Oh, boy.

19 years ago, I graduated with a master's degree at NMSU.

In a prior life, I had done social work, working with Child Protective Services.

I knew the director of th Community of Hope at the time, and they were operating a family shelter.

And so I was invited to come help, run the family shelter.

There were ten months left on that grant toward the end of the ten months, after discussion with the executive director at the time, I said, you know why?

Why don't we see if we can utilize this funding source to put people in their own apartments instead of keeping people homeless and in this stagnant shelter situation, HUD agreed that we could start housing people.

And so I learne how to do rental calculations.

I learned about fair market rent, I learned about rent reasonableness, I learned about lease agreements, and I housed every single family that was living at that shelter, which is now the space utilized for Amador Health Center, and their behavioral healt and doctors and nurses clinic.

and I only had one family out of 1 that came back needing services.

And I said, let's end homelessness.

Let's do more of this.

And so the director and I began to, start to go after funding that would provide rental assistance and supportive services for people in our community.

And I've just been able to grow a lot of the programs I've seen at work.

and I feel like, you know, there's still a lot of work to be done.

Nicole Martinez, executive director of Mesilla Valley Community of Hope, thank you so much for being with us.

Thank you.

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