Albuquerque council denies permit for Sunport shelter

The Albuquerque City Council on Wednesday revoked the permit for a shelter near the Albuquerque International Sunport that helps people with drug addictions. Neighboring businesses and homeowners had appealed the permit, saying the shelter is a nuisance to the surrounding area.

The shelter operates out of the former Ramada Inn, owned by Empower Health Services. Dr. Karan Mahajan, CEO of Empower Health Services, said the facility has 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 the company has added security and conducted daily room checks for drugs and weapons.

“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.

Mahajan bought the property last fall and said he contacted the City of Albuquerque’s Planning Department to ask whether he needed a permit. According to Mahajan, a 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,” a worker with the Planning Department said in the meeting.

A zoning hearing examiner later granted Empower Health a permit. The neighborhood association and a local restaurant operator appealed.

“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.

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 is not clear if or when the shelter will have to shut down. The Planning Department said it is waiting for the council’s next meeting to determine what to do next. Council said it will share further findings on why it denied the permit at its next meeting.