By Connor Currier
The City of Albuquerque will continue paying a contractor to provide overnight shelter services for migrants after the Albuquerque City Council voted 8–1 March 18 to approve the extension.
Councilor Dan Champine, a retired police officer from the Northeast Heights, voted against the measure, which will add $50,000 to the original contract amount of $100,000.
The vote was a short-term extension aimed at allowing the city to put the contract out to bid again. The City has been awarded Federal Emergency Management Agency money to pay for sheltering the migrants, who include asylum-seekers.
Mayor Keller’s office asked for the extension to avoid an interruption in services, which are being provided by United Voices for Newcomer Rights. UVNR was the only organization that applied to provide the services but the city said it would put the contract out to bid again.
The number of migrants coming to Albuquerque has increased and many of them are at risk of homelessness, KOAT reported in October.
This issue is important because migrants need our help, said Rachel Lazar, the executive director at El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos, an immigrant rights group based in Albuquerque.
According to the inter-office memorandum by ABQ Mayor Tim Keller, if the contract amendment did not approve the emergency purchase, many services would be halted, causing migrant shelters to close. Lazar emphasized that local communities can play a role in making the new migrants arriving in Albuquerque feel welcomed.
“We have a responsibility to help immigrants who come here to start a new life because at the end of the day these people are coming here with nothing,” Lazar said.
