How Albuquerque’s Gateway Center Is Shaping Up

It's been nearly four years since voters approved a $14-million bond for Albuquerque's long-promised "Gateway Center" homeless shelter, a project with the goal of creating a facility offering comprehensive, wrap-around services for the homeless.

By late 2020, the city entered into negotiations to purchase the former Lovelace Hospital on Gibson Boulevard. At the time, Mayor Tim Keller envisioned the building as possibly being operational "in months, not years."

But the build-up to the Gateway Center has taken longer than expected. This week, Chris and Gabby are checking in with a couple of top Albuquerque city officials on the status of the project. Family and Community Services Department Director Carol Pierce and Deputy Director Gilbert Ramirez join the conversation for an extended discussion of how the Gateway Center is shaping up.

What services are open at the Gateway Center right now? How many people can the facility house overnight? What's the goal? Will it be the silver bullet to eliminate or alleviate issues surrounding homelessness in Albuquerque? Those questions and much more are tackled in this week's episode, which includes a breakdown of some of the key services that the Gateway Center is expected to offer.

We mentioned our prior interview with Mayor Tim Keller about homelessness at the top of the episode. If you haven't listened to that episode yet, you still can on KRQE.com

Got something to share? Let us know. Send your feedback or story ideas to hosts chris.mckee@krqe.com or gabrielle.burkhart@krqe.com. We're also on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram at @ChrisMcKeeTV and @gburkNM. For more on this episode and all of our prior episodes, visit our podcast website: KRQE.com/podcasts.