Proposal for Homeless Shelter in Roswell, New Mexico

Introduction

The purpose of this proposal is to offer a permanent housing solution to

homeless residents of Roswell, New Mexico. I will be discussing the

benefits of building a homeless shelter to help improve the options that

are available to those that are homeless by providing a place for them to

stay. Furthermore, I will also be discussing the costs of implementing

the ideas outlined in this proposal. The number of homeless individuals

in the state has grown dramatically in the past year due to various

reasons such as poverty, unemployment, lack of affordable housing, and

lack of needed services for mental illness and substance abuse. All of

these factors combined contribute to the instability that people

experience, which leaves them at risk of becoming homeless. While

homelessness has always been an issue in America’s major cities, it has

become a concerning problem for rural areas as well with small towns

being less likely to have support programs. Roswell is among these rural

communities that has been struggling with how to respond to the

increasing homeless population. Currently, there are two centers for

homeless men and women that provide temporary housing, but there are

no shelters that can take in families. Additionally, the existing shelters

have a severe shortage of space, which means that there is a large

number of people with no place to go. This is an extremely urgent matter

because we are leaving people out to sleep on the streets, which makes

them vulnerable to many dangers such as malnutrition, sickness, or

violence. Ensuring that everyone has a safe place to sleep at night and

has access to the basic necessities like food, running water, and

bathrooms are a benefit to the entire community. Constructing a shelter

for transitional housing for men, women, and children would increase

the overall safety and health of the community as well as reduce the

number of homeless individuals using crisis services.

Description of the current situation

While many Roswell residents have likely seen at least one homeless

individual standing on the corner of the town’s main street where the

central shopping stores are located, most probably have not stopped to

think about where these people lay their heads at night. The dry

Berrendo riverbed under a bridge located just east of Main Street is what
a lot of homeless people call home, but this too is being restricted as city

officials have labeled it as a trespassing zone. The police have resorted

to handing out citations, which has come to no avail since the homeless

people have no other option but to stay and face the chances of being

thrown in jail. In times of desperation, it is understandable how

individuals will choose to go against officials if they are not given any

form of support. According to the National Alliance to End

Homelessness, “chronic homelessness is used to describe people who

have experienced homelessness for at least a year – or repeatedly –

while struggling with a disabling condition such as a serious mental

illness, substance use disorder, or physical disability” (“Chronically

Homeless”). Based on statistics from the United States Interagency

Council on Homelessness, “as of January 2019, New Mexico had an

estimated 3,241 experiencing homelessness on any given day…,” and

“of that total, 246 were family households, 257 were veterans, 216 were

unaccompanied young adults, and 1,455 were individuals experiencing

chronic homelessness” (“New Mexico Homelessness Statistics”). This

shows that various people experience homelessness and that there are
many causes to their troubling state. One major factor that contributes to

the rise in homelessness is the structure within the economy and society.

Many people do not make an adequate income to be able to afford the

cost of housing, especially since rent prices only continue to go up.

Apart from experiencing one of the worst housing crises in history, there

are no platforms through which homeless people can equip themselves

to begin a life that is off the streets. With the appropriate resources, we

could rebuild the system that has so gravely failed many people by

creating programs that can quickly connect them to the assistance that

they need to obtain a stable home. Additionally, we could invest in

special services that link homeless people with health care providers that

can help treat their general and mental health problems. A report from

the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development showed that

“…New Mexico had the nation’s largest percentage increase in

homelessness from 2018 to 2019,” which reveals the severity of the

situation (Nathanson). If the town of Roswell does not stop using short-

term solutions to a serious problem, we will start seeing more homeless

people at every corner, and the police’s threat of arresting them will only
impede the officers from finding the true criminals that are harming our

community. It is time that we start working towards fixing the problem

because if nothing is done, the number of homeless individuals will only

continue to increase, and people will start to lose trust in our town as

those that are struggling are left behind.

Project plan

Building a homeless shelter is the first part of creating a long-term

solution to not only help the homeless but also end homelessness. Our

top priority would be to have a place where any homeless individual can

go at any hour of the day or any day of the week so that they can get off

the streets. Once we have established a safe haven where homeless

individuals are comfortable going, we can work on helping them

transition from relying on emergency shelters to providing them with

rental assistance so that they can have permanent affordable housing. In

addition, we could also set up a facility where homeless people with

behavioral health and substance use disorders can be assessed. This

would not only be available to homeless individuals but also the public,

and it would help ease the pressure on crowded emergency rooms.

Although Roswell is a small town that might not experience the same

issues that bigger cities do with helping the homeless, we have the

opportunity here to develop a beneficial system before the situation gets

worse, which begins with a new homeless shelter. In the past, homeless

shelters were a source of protection that would provide people with a

bed and some food, but I would like to expand on this convention by

helping them regain a state of stability. We have to think beyond that

one night where we have given someone shelter and think about what

we are going to do to help them with their future. This is a matter of

collaboration where we need to come together as a community and

contemplate how we can support one another because this could

potentially affect our families, our friends, and our neighbors. With this

plan, we will not only be redirecting the city’s focus on implementing

preventative measures to help meet the unique needs of homeless

people, but we will also be helping ourselves in the long run by

investing in approaches to end homelessness compared to paying the

high price that homelessness already costs us.

Conclusion
I know I may not be an expert on the economy or public health policies,

but I am aware of the problems that have stricken Roswell since I was

born and raised here. When I was younger, I do not remember ever

seeing so many homeless people camped out in tents or sleeping on a

bench outside of a Subway restaurant. Now, this is something that I view

anytime I step into town, which is a very saddening sight. There are so

many real-world issues that leave me confused as to how I should

respond to them, but I can continue thinking about them, or I could do

something to resolve the problem. This is why I have been working with

the Roswell Homeless Coalition to determine how we should move

forward and change the perspective that our town has on helping those

in need. We also have been in close contact with the Family and

Community Services Department in Albuquerque to gain some insight

into how they have been dealing with the issue within their own city.

The estimated cost of building a new emergency shelter is about $15

million with an annual operating cost of at least $5 million (“Changing

the Story…”). I know that this seems like a very scary number, but

studies have shown that housing provides the necessary foundation

through which homeless people can have access to services and support

in order to begin the recovery process. “A recent study by the University

of New Mexico Institute for Social Research followed 95 chronically

homeless people in Albuquerque. After 12 months of housing, these

formerly homeless people decreased their service utilization costs by

31%, from $3,606,500 to $2,476,959” (Hughes). We can slowly start the

process of helping people exit homelessness as well as save money for

our town. There is also a proposal being brought forth to the state of

New Mexico by the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness in

which they are discussing the interventions of rapid rehousing and

permanent supportive housing to help prevent homelessness. Based on

their analysis, they estimated that it would cost $61.3 million per year

for two years and $48 million in capital outlay to help fund this

coordinated effort (Hughes). This is something that Chavez Country

could potentially be included in, which would further help our mission

of setting up a system that turns homelessness into something rare. This

project would help so many people find the security that they seek to

start working towards having a productive life. As human beings who all
deserve the same rights, it is our moral obligation to help improve the

conditions within our community so that we create an atmosphere where

we all uplift one another instead of neglecting the things that we

consider a burden. This plan would effectively help put us on the right

track to end homelessness and establish much needed behavioral health

programs that would benefit the entire town.

 Works Cited

“Changing the Story of Albuquerque’s Homelessness & Behavioral

Health Crisis System.” One Albuquerque Family & Community

Services, 5 November 2019,

http://www.cabq.gov/family/documents/changing-the-story-11-5-

19.pdf.

“Chronically Homeless.” National Alliance to End Homelessness,

January 2020, https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-

america/who-experiences-homelessness/chronically-homeless/.

Hughes, Hank. “Analysis of Resources Needed to House Everyone in

New Mexico.” New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness,

https://files.constantcontact.com/56338cb3201/ec88d229-9097-

4341-9c79-f83b043f05a2.pdf. Accessed 8 December 2020.

Nathanson, Rick. “NM’s rise in homelessness highest in the nation.”

Albuquerque Journal, 9 January 2020,

https://www.abqjournal.com/1408348/nms-rise-in-homelessness-

tops-nation-hud-reports-27-increase-in-one-year.html.
“New Mexico Homelessness Statistics.” United States Interagency

Council on Homelessness, https://www.usich.gov/homelessness-

statistics/nm/. Accessed 8 December 2020.

 Reflection

The purpose of the project I created was to persuade the city of

Roswell to build a new homeless shelter that would provide homeless

individuals with the necessary resources that they need to get back on

their feet. Currently, the city council does not want homeless people

staying under the bridge that runs across the dry Berrendo riverbed,

although it is out of sight from the public, and they are not causing harm

to anyone. With this proposal, it gives homeless people a safe place that

they can go to, and it will stop the town from giving them citations in an

attempt to run them off. I think this piece achieves its purpose because I

covered all of the topics that were outlined in the guidelines, and I

provided enough information on the subject so that any person reading it

could come to the coherent conclusion that a new homeless shelter is

needed and would greatly benefit the town.

The audience is the city council or the mayor of Roswell because

they are the ones who have the power to propose new bills and pass new

laws that would help govern the city. Additionally, they have a

considerable amount of control over the annual budget, which would

mean that any proposal would have to be approved by them before any

immediate action could be taken. I think any member of the community

of Roswell or possibly a resident of New Mexico could also be part of

the audience because a lot of the points I brought up are involved with

outreach and advocacy since this would be an entire group effort.

Homelessness is a social issue, so I think everyone should be concerned

with the steps that are being taken to help resolve the matter.

When evaluating this project, I would like you to know that I truly

learned a lot from doing this assignment, and I can see now how

important it is to know how to compose a sound document. I think all of

the student learning outcomes really came together in this project

because I had to consider the genre of the document along with the

intended audience, and I also had to do a lot of research to incorporate

reliable concepts that would support my claims and the overall purpose

of the proposal. The organization of this course also really helped to get

an idea of how everything should be formatted since we were able to

share our progress on Google Docs. Overall, this was a very useful
experience, and I gained a strong understanding of how proposals should

be written and what role they play within a workplace environment.