Albuquerque City Council works on potential changes to nuisance property ordinance
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An Albuquerque bookstore owner is facing backlash after allowing people facing homelessness to stay on his property.
City officials claim it’s an encampment and a public nuisance. But a new ordinance could give that owner and others some leeway when it comes to Albuquerque’s homeless crisis.
Quirky Used Books & More has been open for about three years, but some of Albuquerque’s unhoused population has been living on the property even longer.
“We thought that the humane and reasonable thing to do when the city was being inhumane was to allow them to stay,” Gillam Kerley said.
For the past nine months, Kerley has let about 15 people seek shelter outside his business along Central Avenue. That’s when city officials declared there was a problem. But recent changes to a city ordinance could lead to some grace.
“They essentially sought sanctuary here on our privately-owned parking lot,” Kerley continued. “The reality is, they’re not just going to evaporate. They’re going to be somewhere, and I think it’s better for them to be in my parking lot than to be in your neighborhood park, in the alley behind your home.”
But Ed Fitzgerald, who owns an architecture firm and properties right across the street, doesn’t agree.
“For my tenants and for myself, and I noticed a rise in, you know, street traffic in here. [It] seemed like more drugs and more graffiti and just a sense of not being as safe as it had been,” Ed Fitzgerald said.
And apparently Albuquerque city officials didn’t like Kerley’s position either.
“They indicated that they were going to take us before a hearing officer for an administrative hearing, which could result in significant fines, thousands of dollars, and an order to remove the people,” Kerley said.
That hearing isn’t happening until March 10. In the meantime, Albuquerque City Council is working out potential changes to its current nuisance property ordinance. As it stands right now, if a business or property gets three violations in three months, it will close while the city investigates.
Kerley worried calls about the encampment would be violations. But Monday night, city councilors agreed any homeless people staying on properties would not fall in that category.
“We’re hoping that the ordinance in its final form will not affect us, but we’re still being facing the hearing under the zoning code,” Kerley said.
City council didn’t make a final decision on changing the ordinance Monday night, instead they deferred it for 30 days.
One of Kerley’s employees, Elizabeth Webb, argues because of their proximity to Central, they’re going to see unhoused individuals near their stores.
“I think if we today decided, ‘Hey, everyone you have to leave,’ they would just go on the street. And I don’t think nothing would be solved, basically. But instead of doing that, we’re offering them that security, and they know where they are going to sleep tonight, and I think that gives them a little more hope,” Webb said.
KOB 4 reached out to the city for comment, a spokesperson with the planning department sent the following statement:
“There are numerous health and safety concerns at this location, and the City is urging the business to come into compliance. Code Enforcement responded to at least a dozen complaints last year, APD has responded to multiple incidents, and there have been several calls for human waste cleanup and unsanitary conditions
— Tim Walsh, Public Information Coordinator.”