Albuquerque council denies permit for addiction shelter near Sunport
The Albuquerque City Council voted Wednesday to deny a permit for an addiction treatment shelter near the Albuquerque International Sunport, siding with neighboring businesses and homeowners who called the site a nuisance. The decision leaves the future of the shelter uncertain as the city’s Planning Department awaits direction from the council’s next meeting.
The shelter operates out of what used to be the Ramada Inn, now owned by Empower Health Services, a company that helps people with drug addictions. Dr. Karan Mahajan, CEO of Empower Health Services, said they have 135 patients staying for months-long treatment programs.
“I think whenever you have any kind of substance use disorder program, there’s a lot of stigma behind it and that is very unfortunate,” Mahajan said.
Mahajan said they have worked on adding security and doing daily room checks, making sure there are no drugs or weapons on the property.
“We’re not trying to have the homeless situation in our community and bringing in this neighborhood. That is not our goal. Our goal is to help people,” Mahajan said.
Last fall, Mahajan bought the property and contacted the City of Albuquerque’s Planning Department to see if he needed a permit. He said the city worker gave him the wrong information, and the shelter operated for months without a conditional use permit. It turned out that the permit was required.
“Staff did make an error in this case, but that staff member is no longer with the planning department, but mistakes do get made,” said a worker with the Planning Department in the meeting.
A zoning hearing examiner later granted Empower Health a permit, but the neighborhood association and a local restaurant appealed the decision.
“Back in October, we noticed a huge increase in our neighborhood. It started to look like East Central, shoes on power lines, drug use in the neighborhood, crime in the neighborhood, trash all over the place,” said John Love, a representative with D. Love restaurants who appealed.
City council sided with neighbors and denied the permit.
“To my understanding, it didn’t go in our favor. But we are waiting on the official correspondence from the city to see what the other next step we have to take,” Mahajan said.
It’s not clear if or when the shelter will have to shut down. The city’s Planning Department said they are waiting for city council’s next meeting to determine what to do next. City council said in their next meeting, they will share further findings on why they denied the permit.
