The City of Santa Fe is cutting ties with the Interfaith Community Shelter on Cerrillos Road.
In a vote last night during a long and tense city council meeting, the council decided by a tally of 7 to 1 to end the lease on July 31 with Interfaith, also known as Pete’s Place.
Councilors said rising safety concerns around the shelter demonstrate it needs new leadership.
The city will bring in Urban Alchemy, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, to take over operations of the facility.
Labelled as an “emergency services contract” the deal is worth $1.5 million for one year.
A four-year street outreach contract with Urban Alchemy worth $7.9 million was also approved.
Only one councilor, Michael Garcia of District 2, opposed the plans.
" I don't believe we've been a good partner to Interfaith," Garcia said.
"There is a very dangerous precedent being set here, where, from my understanding and from the community that provided critical testimony tonight, that requests for support have been been asked for, and those requests have not been accommodated by the city of Santa Fe."
City staff pushed back against Garcia’s assessment, citing a number of meetings held between shelter leaders and the city.
He also argued the city should keep shelter management local and said it’s wrong to hand such a complex challenge to an outside group.
Many of the 80-plus people who spoke during a nearly three-hour long public comment period agreed with him.
But some people who work in the neighborhood, such as Naomi Boylan, said they’ve seen more crime and safety issues near the shelter in recent years.
" It is no longer feasible to continue operating the way we are," said Boylan.
"While Pete's, when it started in its infancy, was an incredible idea, they have outgrown. We are a smaller city with large city problems. We need someone to come in and help manage the situation until we as a city can find a long-term solution."
District 1’s Alma Castro recused herself from the lease-ending vote.
Her family runs a restaurant next door to the shelter.
During the meeting, Castro said she had “lost faith” in Pete’s because of what she described as “inaction.”
City officials say more than $3 million has been spent on emergency services in the area around the shelter over the last two and a half years.
Urban Alchemy sent four representatives to the meeting.
Councilors questioned them about past lawsuits, including claims of sexual harassment.
One Urban Alchemy official dismissed the complaints as “frivolous” but admitted some cases are still active.
One speaker from the community, Amy Farah Weiss, who founded an organization serving the unhoused in San Francisco, at one point worked there with staff from Urban Alchemy.
She complimented UA, calling the workers “allies” and “kindred spirits.”
But she also suggested an interim solution, in which Santa Fe gave Interfaith one more year before handing it over to Urban Alchemy.
"UA is not more trained or more committed than interfaith. Choosing to shift that funding now would be deeply demoralizing to the community, and we need an activated community, like someone said earlier," Weiss said.
"If you have any little bit of doubt, please table this proposed change for at least a year of collaboration and capacity building."
That particular suggestion was never taken up during the council’s discussion period.
Many residents were upset about the funding in the new contracts.
Interfaith received about $160,000 a year in city support over the past three years, which amounted to about 11 percent of its $1.4 million budget.
Interfaith deputy director Beverly Kellam confirmed that the shelter raised the rest of its funding from individual donations, faith communities, foundations, private and government grants, and its annual fundraising gala.
The city of Santa Fe will far exceed its annual outlay to the shelter in the one-year $1.5 million allocation it approved last night for Urban Alchemy.
There was one other item on the agenda, to discuss a proposal to build the city’s second pallet shelter microcommunity on Richards Avenue.
But when council finally arrived at that agenda item, it was past one 'oclock in the morning and they opted instead to tackle it in the June 11 meeting.
