9-04-2024 8:03am

Congressman Gabe Vasquez to Attend Southeast NM Food & Housing Summit Sept 7, 2024 Tays Center

Chris Edwards Editor

Congressman Gabe Vasquez and candidate for State House District 51 Ashley Myers has accepted the opportunity to join Southeast NM Food & Housing Summit which will be hosted at the Tays Center this Saturday September 7th, 2024 11 am to 1 pm.

Vasquez's opponent, Yvette Herrell and Myer's opponent, John Block have declined or ignored the invitation to attend this important regional conference which is convened to discuss affordable housing and food security.

In 2022, Alamogordo, NM had a population of 31k people. Between 2021 and 2022 the population of Alamogordo, NM decreased from 31,201 to 30,996, a −0.657% decrease. From 2021 to 2022, employment in Alamogordo, NM also declined at a rate of −4.46%, from 12k employees to 11.5k employees. With job losses, a population decline, crime rates are increasing, food insecurity has increased and affordable housing is an issue in this community with a poverty rate of 18.3% of the population.

For Alamogordo affordable housing is an issue and many military families are choosing to live in Las Cruces rather than Alamogordo as a result. Without affordable housing businesses suffer as does the city as a whole. Without affordable housing options poverty increases and then for a subset that is growing rapidly a larger percentage of the population falls into a category of housing insecurity.

As Maureen Schmittle reminded us in January 2022 via an opinion piece as reported by AlamogordoTownNews.org “Housing insecurity spans a range of situations: staying in a motel unsure if you can afford it beyond this month; “couch-surfing” – staying with friends or relatives until they ask you to leave; or just being unable to secure long-term affordable housing with adequate space for your family. There are people we see on the streets, who we believe are chronically homeless. We suspect they might be sleeping in a tent, sleeping in a park, or in an abandoned building. In other towns, we might assume there is an overnight shelter available. We might empathize, but feel at a loss for how to help, or feel guilty for having all that we do. In general, seeing a homeless person brings up difficult emotions, perhaps including negative feelings about that person, for those of us who have our most basic needs met.”

AlamogordoTownNews.org reports that Nadia Sikes on October 20th of 2023 explained to the public a goal and a mission with 100% Otero around affordable housing…”The homelessness crisis in Alamogordo and in communities around the state and country must be addressed. We have to support communities, individuals and organizations that work to make housing accessible to all. 100% Otero, a local grassroots non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating childhood trauma, has a mission to ensure that 100% of county residents have access to the ten vital services for surviving and thriving. One of the surviving services is housing.”

When we look around Alamogordo we see an increase in homelessness and indeed a recent point of time count was conducted as mandated via the Census and by HUD. Providing accurate data to the city, county, state and HUD, could result in acquiring dollars to address this crisis as one of many tools but that alone won’t solve the area affordability issues in housing. In early 2023, the Point in Time count documented 49 unsheltered people in Otero County. There probably are more unhoused since this is a difficult population to count. Local officials have identified the lack of housing, and especially affordable housing, as a crisis in our community.

The goal of this upcoming regional Southeast NM Food & Housing Summit hosted by With Many Hands Alamogordo, is to bring together hundreds of working people who care about the cost and quality of food and housing to speak with one voice and advance a pro-worker, pro-local food, pro-affordable housing political agenda in the 2024 election. Organizers from grassroots group With Many Hands have been working in small towns throughout the southeast part of the state for the past two years to improve the quality of life for working people in places like Alamogordo, Roswell, Tularosa & Carlsbad.

This Summit is the culmination of several wins that these community campaigns have garnered. From 4 new public community gardens in Otero County to a $500,000 grant from MFA/Housing NM to expand their innovative Rehab2Rental program creating more affordable housing by rehabbing vacant units in Chaves.

The over 200 working people from across the region will share strategies and hear from candidates for political office on what their plans are to address the food & housing crisis in our part of the state

All candidates for NMCD2, HD51, 53 and 54 were invited to attend this regional meeting.

To end homelessness once and for all, develop affordable housing for the poor and middle class, and to create affordable food options leafing to food security; community members, together with federal, state and local governments, must invest in proven solutions at the scale necessary to address the problem. Forums and community networking is essential and this upcoming conference is a grassroots level event of citizen engagement of which the public is invited to attend for free.

In addition to political speakers, others include...