Scott Sanders, left, St. Elizabeth Shelters & Supportive Housing program manager at Santa Fe Suites, shows one of the rooms at the former hotel to Mayor Alan Webber last year. Some tenants pay the full $850 rent at the apartment complex while others receive subsidies.
The Santa Fe Suites at South St. Francis Drive and West Zia Road has been converted into housing with funding from nonprofits, the city and the federal government. The property is now the subject of a lawsuit filed in state District Court by James O'Hara who alleges he was not compensated when it was sold in 2020.
Alvaro Romero, from left, a resident at Santa Fe Suites, speaks with Edward Archuleta, executive director of St. Elizabeth Shelters and Supportive Housing, and Mayor Alan Webber at Santa Fe Suites on Tuesday. Romero says he spent most of the past six years panhandling on the streets of Albuquerque. Now he has a job nearby.
Scott Sanders, left, St. Elizabeth Shelters & Supportive Housing program manager at Santa Fe Suites, shows one of the rooms at the former hotel to Mayor Alan Webber last year. Some tenants pay the full $850 rent at the apartment complex while others receive subsidies.
The Santa Fe Suites at South St. Francis Drive and West Zia Road has been converted into housing with funding from nonprofits, the city and the federal government. The property is now the subject of a lawsuit filed in state District Court by James O'Hara who alleges he was not compensated when it was sold in 2020.
Alvaro Romero, from left, a resident at Santa Fe Suites, speaks with Edward Archuleta, executive director of St. Elizabeth Shelters and Supportive Housing, and Mayor Alan Webber at Santa Fe Suites on Tuesday. Romero says he spent most of the past six years panhandling on the streets of Albuquerque. Now he has a job nearby.
Beyond the keycard slots still on the doors, Santa Fe’s newest apartment community has shed most signs of its past life as a hotel.
Since the city helped a nonprofit acquire the Santa Fe Suites off St. Francis Drive last year with CARES Act funding, 83 of the 123 units have been occupied.
Some tenants pay the full $850 rent, others pay around a third of their income and use city or federal subsidies to cover the rest of their rent, and still others are recently homeless or have spent time in shelters or recovery programs.
Conversion instead of construction is a new approach in Santa Fe’s attempt to expand affordable housing and decrease homelessness.
“All the places I’ve been, they don’t also help you with housing,” said Alvaro Romero, a 39-year-old resident. “A roof over my head, a bed, being able to make my own food. I can stay home.”
Romero was first incarcerated as a teenager and said he spent most of the past six years panhandling on the streets of Albuquerque before landing at St. Elizabeth Shelters and Supportive Housing and a treatment program at the Santa Fe Recovery Center.
There he met Scott Sanders, a former substance abuse counselor and case manager who now works as a property manager at Santa Fe Suites for St. Elizabeth. Sanders said about half the units are occupied by residents transitioning from shelters, substance abuse programs, motels, cars or the streets. The nonprofit has seven staff members focused on the project, including Sanders and two case managers.
“This model is maybe an additional level of help that’s been missing before when people have to go through Life Link, and claim disability, and find vouchers and go through a lot of hoops for housing,” Sanders said. “If the security deposit is going to be an issue, we can work around that.”
Santa Fe Suites was an extended-stay hotel, and Sanders said 25 previous tenants stayed on at reduced rents. The Christus St. Vincent Regional Cancer Center also owns a handful of units.
City records show the property cost a little over $9 million — nonprofit Community Solutions spent $3.9 million; the city spent $2 million in CARES Act funds; the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority gave a $2 million grant; nonprofit investors gave around $600,000; and the federal government reimbursed around $500,000.
Community Solutions, based in New York, says it plans to eventually hand over complete ownership to St. Elizabeth. Community Solutions Principal David Foster said the mixed-income model for affordable housing can be sustainable to pay the mortgage and operating costs thanks in part to real estate investors not looking to turn a profit and the lack of construction costs.
“When communities got money in response to the pandemic, a lot of them used it to subsidize individuals in hotels for a finite period of time. Here’s a way to take that money and invest it in something much cheaper per unit,” Foster said. “Across the country, we are nowhere near generating enough affordable units. This is one way.”
While Santa Fe Suites has over 100 units and is the largest housing project St. Elizabeth has managed, the city is still has a shortage of affordable housing.
According to city data from the fall, only 77 of 1,128 units under construction would qualify as affordable, meaning they will be offered at below-market rates. And even at market rate, the city’s housing hovers around 99 percent capacity. According to census data, the median monthly rent price in Santa Fe County increased by about $100 over the last decade, from around $950 from 2009-13 to $1,043 from 2014-18.
Santa Fe Suites represents a replicable model, said Hank Hughes, executive director of the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness and a Santa Fe County commissioner.
“Airbnb is turning our homes into hotels, so we’re going to have to turn some of our hotels into homes,” Hughes said. “It can be done quickly rather than building something and trying to plan for some of the units to be affordable.”
Romero recently landed a job in the bakery at the Albertsons nearby and is friends with his neighbor. He says a place to stay helps him stay away from drugs.
Down the hall, 62-year-old Rene Vidal’s beagle and pit bull mix, Chapo, is keeping him company through recovery from alcoholism.
“I see some younger people here getting their life back on track, and that’s great. A lot of people need a stable environment,” Vidal said. “It’s a good project, well worth the money. Santa Fe needs it, you know.”
