Jason Westman has been homeless in Albuquerque for nearly 20 years. He has been diagnosed with PTSD and has a history of alcohol abuse, and though he’s tried to get treatment, he never stays on it for long.
During the warm months he sleeps on the streets, begging for change and occasionally staying at a shelter. But every winter, Westman said he usually commits a low-level crime like breaking a window so he can go to county jail, get out of the cold and get three meals a day for a few months.
“A lot of guys I know do the same thing,” Westman said in an interview conducted from the Metropolitan Detention Center. “In a lot of ways it’s easier. No one cares about us, they don’t know what to do with us. They’re just happy to get us off the street.”
Westman’s story is not unique, and many times it is the police and the legal system who are the first to deal with the city’s homeless people who suffer from addiction and mental illness.
Some state politicians, however, are seeking to change laws and enhance the justice system in
order to help, not hinder, homeless people.
Looking to change the laws
State Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, a Democrat, said a bill coming up in the next session of legislature will address the needs of how the jail system deals with mental illness and its prevalence in the homeless population.
A variation of Kendra’s Law, the bill will allow the jail to hold an inmate in observation and have a psychiatrist determine if they need pharmacological or therapeutic help once they are released, he said.
Made to address mentally ill homeless and drug addicted homeless, Ortiz y Pino said the idea behind Kendra’s law is mandated outpatient treatment or assisted outpatient treatment.
After being released, if a patient is prescribed medicine and refuses to take it or won’t attend therapy, a judge can then order them to take their medication or attend sessions in a court of law, he said.
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“That’s where it gets a little dicey. Some of them have taken pills in the past, they’ve taken medicine in the past,” Ortiz y Pino said. “They don’t like them because they leave them feeling dopey or they still hear voices, a lot of them have strong side effects.”
There is no such non-compliance law in place yet here in New Mexico, and for that reason Ortiz y Pino said he knows its launch will require a whole new adaptation of the court and jail system.
The need for outpatient care for the homeless is not the only concern for the city, as there is not enough inpatient care for those without income, said Lisa Huval, policy and advocacy director for New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness.
“Under Medicaid expansion, almost everyone who is homeless will be able to receive Medicaid. However there is still not enough mental health and substance abuse treatment options in Albuquerque,” Huval said.
Jail is the new psych ward
New Mexico’s largest psych facility, with a 250-bed capacity, is located at Bernalillo County’s Metropolitan Detention Center, and does not accept Medicaid, Ortiz y Pino said, making the recent expansion inaccessible to those who may need it most.
Now when someone is in need of health care while incarcerated, the county foots the bill instead of the state, he said.
The county is currently spending 40 percent of its budget on the jail, he said, the biggest expense being the psych unit.
While county money may ensure they are cared for while inside, the homeless can only apply for Medicaid the day they are released and are only given a few days medication to leave with, he said.
It can take two weeks to a month or more to become eligible, he said, leaving them at risk in society without the proper care and resources they may need to make it.
Last year, Ortiz y Pino fought for a bill that would require people in jail or prison to get screened and eligible for Medicaid while serving their time, a bill that was vetoed, he said.
If passed, the law would have allowed the homeless to receive Medicaid immediately upon leaving incarceration, rather than having to wait for assistance.
If the law is passed all institutions will have to abide and it won’t abruptly be changed, he said.
Ortiz y Pino believes the psych unit being housed at MDC causes another kind of issue for the homeless, the problem of unnecessary criminalization, he said.
“Using the jail as a psych unit, there’s still a record. It’s still on their record, so they can’t get into public housing. It puts them behind the eight ball,” he said. “If you provide the treatment in jail, it puts them at a disadvantage, forever stained.”
Criminalizing homelessness
When their situation causes frequent and unavoidable clashes with the law, the last thing the homeless population needs is more negative attention, Ortiz y Pino said.
David Correia, associate professor of American studies at UNM, said the laws are designed to create criminals out of the poor and especially the unsheltered.
“If you’re homeless, everything you do is against the law. Think of the things we do in private that, if done in public, is against the law. Go to sleep, go to the bathroom, etcetera,” he said. “If you’re homeless you have no private space, and thus everything you or I take for granted, makes them a criminal.”
Correia said he believes recognizing that everyone has a human right to shelter is mandatory in addressing the issue of homelessness in our state.
A collaboration and diversion from the jail system into proper housing would help stem the revolving door of homeless incarceration and further assist the homeless to get back on their feet, Ortiz y Pino said.
If someone without a home is arrested, often they are kept in jail because the courts do not want to release someone with no place to go, he said. If there was a program ready to house them they wouldn’t be stuck in the system so long.
Assisted housing saves money, ensures better treatment
Aside from just sheltering someone, health care can also be better received and maintained if in stable housing, something our city is struggling to provide.
A partnership of assisted housing and the jails would mean those being newly released would have a much greater chance on the outside, a move that would also help the city monetarily, he said.
Assisted housing costs around $600 a month or $8,000 a year, Ortiz y Pino said, whereas the jail spends $8,000 housing someone in just two months.
The incentives, humanitarian and monetary, to provide better housing opportunities for the homeless in and out of jail has yet to change the constant struggle faced by those trying to assist the homeless population.
“Lack of affordable housing has always been the core cause of homelessness,” Huval said. “We need to invest in safe, decent rental housing that is affordable to people with very low incomes and provide services and supports that help people stay housed.”
Heading Home, one Albuquerque organization, provides housing and additional counseling to the homeless in Albuquerque, Ortiz y Pino said, but without extra assistance they are running out of resources and housing units.
Ortiz y Pino believes further assistance in prison diversion into stable housing and even a separate facility apart from MDC is just what may turn the tide, even if it may cost a little to get started, he said.
“Instead of sending them to jail, let’s send them to this other facility, a treatment facility. They come out of there without a record, then they get housing, employment and schooling,” he said. “Bottom line is, we’re going to have to spend some money to make this work.”
The current system is failing the homeless population of the state, he said, and unless politicians and citizens have the will and the courage to make a drastic change, it will continue to fail them.
Matthew Reisen is a staff reporter and Jonathan Baca is the news editor at the Daily Lobo. They can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
