On December 1, 2017, Mayor Tim Keller was sworn into office for his first of three four year terms after being elected each time with landslide margins. He has now submitted a total of 9 annual budgets reviewed and approved by the City Council.
This article addresses the recently enacted 2017 City Hall Budget and discusses the dramatic 53% increase in city hall budgets over the 8 and a half years Mayor Keller has been in office and the funding made for services and shelter for the unhoused they do not want.
2027 CITY BUDGET APPROVED
On May 18, 2026 the Albuquerque City Council voted to approve the City’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget with the passage of a City Council Resolution which appropriated $1.5 billion for operating the City Of Albuquerque for the fiscal year that begins on July 1, 2026 and ends on June 30, 2027. There are 27 City Departments. Each budget is reviewed by the council by what is called the Committee of the Whole made up of all city councilors. The city budget is what is called a performance-based budget. Throughout the year, city departments are tasked with compiling statistics and information on the departments to justify budgets and increases or decreases in personnel levels.
On June 9, it was reported that Mayor Tim Keller allowed the 10-day signing deadline for the enacted budget to pass without any line item vetos. The budget become law without his signature. Under the city charter rules, the budget automatically took effect once that deadline expired.
SHELTER AND SERVICES TO UNHOUSED TOP PRIORITY
Under the city council’s approved fiscal year ‘27 budget, increased services to the unhoused remain the City’s top priorities in the approved budget. The approved budget directs more resources to frontline response to deal with the unhoused.
ALBUQUERQUE COMMUNITY SAFETY (ACS)
Albuquerque Community Safety (ACS) was given a 10.5% budget increase to $19.8 million for the 2027 fiscal year, including $261,000 for raises. The budget increase is intended to increase field response and street outreach. ACS personnel have backgrounds as social workers, clinicians and counselors and respond to 911 calls reporting people suffering from addiction, homelessness and mental health emergencies. The approved budget would fund 156 full-time positions, up from 142 currently. The ACS department will have a $2 million investment to expand field response and double the size of its Street Outreach Team, freeing up APD officers and strengthening the City’s ability to respond to behavioral health calls and homelessness with specialized, civilian-led interventions. $500,000 would be reallocated for motel vouchers.
HOMELESSNESS, HOUSING, AND BEHAVIORAL HEALTH DEPARTMENT
The council approved FY27 budget continues to build a coordinated system of care designed to move individuals from crisis to stability through outreach, shelter, treatment, and housing. The coordinated system is know as the Gateway system.
The approved FY27 budget increases funding by 9.5% to $48.9 million for the city’s Health, Housing and Homelessness Department, and fully funds the Gateway System of Care for the unhouse. The council approved FY27 budget includes $8 million for affordable housing vouchers. The approved budget contains funding for 98 full-time positions, of which 78 are paid from the city’s general fund. Another 20 personnel are paid by grant funding.
The Gateway System is fully funded under the FY27 budget to ensure operational stability as services continue to come online, supporting shelter, treatment, and housing pathways for those most in need. Expanded outreach through ACS will strengthen connections into this system and improve coordination across services.
The Gateway System of support for people struggling with homelessness and drug and substance addiction consists of the following:
- Gateway Center– (Located on Gibson.) Campus providing medical, behavioral, and social services including overnight beds, first responder intake, medical sobering and respite. Old Lovelace Hospital city purchased for $15 million costing $95 million to remodel into shelter and supposedly providing assistance to upwards of 1,000 unhoused per month.
- Gateway West – Safe, supportive 660-bed facility for individuals experiencing homelessness, offering specialized resources and case management. Annual Impact: 5,700 Individuals. Open 24/7 Since 2019.
- Gateway Family – Supportive housing center for families with overnight beds, meals, and case management to help achieve stable housing. Annual Impact: 987 Individuals Open Since 2020.
- Gateway Recovery– 50-resident micro-community offering low-barrier beds, recovery services, and support for 18 – 24 months. Annual projected Impact: 50 – 100.
- Gateway Young Adult – Housing and support for young adults ages 15-25 experiencing homelessness, tailored to their unique needs. Annual projected Impact: 120 Individuals. On March 25, the city opened the $17 million transitional housing facility for homeless youth
https://www.cabq.gov/health-housing-homelessness/gateway-system-of-care
The Health, Housing and Homelessness Department budget also includes targeted investments, like $500,000 in reallocated funding to support motel vouchers through expanded outreach efforts, providing immediate, flexible shelter options in partnership with Albuquerque Community Safety Department (ACS).
JAEMES SHANLEY GUEST COLUMN ANALYIZING CITY HALL SPENDING UNDER KELLER
Following is a guest opinion column on the City’s budget process submitted by community activist Jaemes Shanley after he attended City Council meetings on the ’27 fiscal year budget. The report is a review of the astonishing spending increases over the last 10 years for basic essential government services with 8 of those fiscal years under Mayor Keller. What is clear is that there is a disproportionate emphasis given to deal with the city’s unhoused with little progress made as the unhoused continue to increase on the streets.
“Probably like me, most residents of Albuquerque would consider it a toss-up whether to delve into the city’s annual budgeting process or have a root canal.
That is unless you have been connected to Albuquerque for a long time (since 1969 in my case) and are frequently out on the streets to see the state of things here. That is what prompted me to download the full 238-page fiscal year 2027 budget document, covering July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, when it was announced in early April.
https://www.cabq.gov/dfa/documents/fy27-proposed-budget-with-weblink-final-4-01-2026.pdf
Perusing it to obtain specific understanding of how Mayor Keller’s administration “remains committed to delivering a safer, cleaner, and more functional city while building long-term capacity in the systems that support our community”, as he describes in his introductory letter to City Council, was not particularly enlightening. It is not a lack of data therein. It is, on the contrary, an abundance of data presented with insufficient context, connection, outcomes and trends that can be observed and confirmed in our community.”
ANNUAL CITY COUNICIL BUDGET PROCESS
The process by which budgets are reviewed, amended, and ultimately approved by City Council involves three meetings of a Committee-Of -The-Whole, consisting of the entire Council membership and chaired this year by District 9 Councilor Renée Grout. In the first two sessions the Committee heard comment from the public about aspects of the budget and engaged with administrators, specialists, and directors within the Mayor’s administration. The third did not permit public comment on the budget but focused on queries directed at the Administration.
All three meetings can be viewed on videos accessible via the CABQ legistar website https://cabq.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx
The first of these ran 7 ½ hours, of which 48 minutes was public comment.
The ensuing dialog with city administrative staff provided an object lesson in the seeming disconnect between City Council and the Administration in understanding of the proposed budget. Given Council’s access year-round to supplemental data and explanation from the administration, to which citizen taxpayers are not privileged, and, in spite of that, Council members apparent challenges and frustration getting their heads around the budget, it is no wonder outside observers can feel figuratively stuck in the dark of a forest that keeps understanding in the shade.
What is particularly absent in documents, budget dialog, and the inter Council and Administration sniping is a true long-term perspective on the evolution of our city government over the past decade or longer. The budget is instead presented and discussed as if where we find ourselves today is the inevitable product of an intensely focused, responsible, and pragmatic process and evolution.
I concluded the only way to verify this was to extract budget data for revenue, spending and personnel counts for multiple years from the approved budget documents for each year stretching back to 2007, also available at the city’s website.
So that is what I did.
https://www.cabq.gov/dfa/budget/annual-budget
What emerged was troubling, especially recognizing that Albuquerque is not a dramatically better city today than it was 20 years ago. This fact is evidenced by the number and conditions of unhoused folks living on the streets, empty and abandoned buildings (including iconic 17 story architectural landmarks), vacant lots dispersed city-wide, unleased commercial real estate, and an historic building on Central Avenue downtown collapsing into the street mere days after it was closed by Code Enforcement.
CITY REVENUE SOURCES HIGHLIGHTS
Here are the highlights that stood out to me from aggregating data from city budget documents starting in 2007:
The 2027 budget reflects a $34.9 million reduction from the 2026 budget.
In every year budgets match projected revenue, almost to the penny.
2018 CITY REVENUE SOURCES, DOLLAR AMOUNTS, AND PERCENTAGE CONTRIBUTION WERE:
- Gross Receipts Tax: $ 338.2 million (35.3%)
- Interfund & Fund Balance & Adj.: $ 157.5 million (16.5%)
- Property Tax: $ 154.0 million (16.1%)
- Enterprise Proceeds: $ 147.1 million (15.4%)
- Intergovernmental: $ 54.3 million (5.7%)
- Charges & Permits: $ 48.5 million (5.1%)
- Other Taxes: $ 42.0 million (4.4%)
- Miscellaneous: $ 14.8 million (1.6%)
TOTAL $ 956.7 million
2027 PROJECTED CITY REVENUE SOURCES, DOLLAR AMOUNTS, AND PERCENTAGE CONTRIBUTION ARE:
- Gross Receipts Tax: $ 616.4 million (42.0%)
- Interfund & Fund Balance & Adj. $ 238.6 million (16.3%)
- Property Tax: $ 200.9 million (13.7%)
- Enterprise Proceeds: $ 187.5 million (12.8%)
- Charges & Permits: $ 75.2 million (5.1%)
- Intergovernmental: $ 73.9 million (5.0%)
- Other Taxes: $ 57.0 million (3.9%)
- Miscellaneous: $ 16. 3 million (1.1%)
TOTAL $1,466.1 million
MAJOR HIGHLIGHTS
From 2010 (the final Mayor Martin Chavez administration budget) to 2018 (the final Mayor Richard Berry administration budget) total City of Albuquerque spending increased by $52.4 million or by 6%.
City employee headcount from 2010 to 2018 decreased by only 123 or by -2%.
[On December 1, 2017, Mayor Tim Keller was sworn into office for his first of three four year terms.] From 2018 to 2027 the proposed City of Albuquerque budget spending increased by $509.4 million or by 53% under Mayor Keller [and during Keller’s eight years in office with a tax increase enacted during his first year in office in 2018.]
There are a total of 27 City Hall Departments. The top 10 departments by spending in 2018 were as follows:
- Police Department 18.5% of total budget
- City Support Department 10.7% of total budget
- Fire Department 8.4% of total budget
- Solid Waste Department 7.9% of total budget
- Family, Community, Youth, (pre-HHH) 7.3% of total budget
- Human Resources Department 6.6% of total budget
- Finance/Admin. Department 6.6% of total budget
- Aviation Department 6.4% of total budget
- Municipal Development 5.6% of total budget
- Transit Department 4.8% of total budget
TOP 10 DEPARTMENTS BY PERECENTAGE OF TOTAL BUDGET ALLOCATION IN 2027 ARE:
- Police Department: 19.5% of total budget
- Fire Department: 9.7% of total budget
- City Support Department: 9.6% of total budget
- Human Resources Department: 8.3% of total budget
- Healthcare, Housing, Homelessness: 6.9% of total budget
- Solid Waste Department: 6.1% of total budget
- Aviation Department: 5.3% of total budget
- Finance/Admin Department: 5.0% of total budget
- Arts & Cultural Services Department 3.9% of total budget
- Transit Department 3.8% of total budget
Spending on Health, Housing, and Homelessness is smaller as a percentage of budget in 2027 than it was at the end of the Mayor Richard Berry administration.
THE TOP 10 DEPARTMENTS WITH HIGHEST NET ANNUAL BUDGET DOLLAR INCREASE FROM 2018 TO 2027 ARE:
- Police + $108.8 million
- City Support / General Services + $89.7 million
- Fire + $62.4 million
- Human Resources + $58.8 million
- Health, Housing, Homelessness + $31.1 million
- Community Safety + $21.0 million
- Parks & Recreation + $19.8 million
- Aviation + $16.3 million
- Arts & Culture + $16.1 million
- 10.Solid Waste + $13.7 million
Departments with highest Combined Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) from 2018 through 2027 ARE:
- Civilian Police Oversight: +15.4% CAGR ($2.2 million)
- Chief Administrative Office: +14.9% CAGR ($4.2 million)
- Office of Inspector General: +12.2% CAGR ($626 thousand)
- City Council Services: +11.7% CAGR ($6.6 million)
- Office of City Clerk: + 9.1% CAGR ($2.7 million)
- Human Resources: + 7.6% CAGR ($58.8 million)
- Fire Department: + 6.6% CAGR ($62.4 million)
- Technology & Innovation: + 6.6% CAGR ($13.6 million)
- Police Department: +5.5% CAGR ($108.8 million)
- Parks & Recreation: + 5.0% CAGR ($19.8 million)
- Planning Department: +5.0% CAGR ($8.5 million)
- Legal Department: +5.0% CAGR ($3 million)
City employee headcount from 2018 to 2027 increased by 961 or 16%.
Top 10 departments by personnel count in 2018 were:
- Police: 1,513
- Fire: 711
- Transit: 609
- Solid Waste: 468
- Municipal Development: 438
- Arts & Cultural Services: 352
- Parks & Recreation: 294
- Aviation: 285
- Health Housing Homelessness: 282
- Planning: 175
TOTAL: 5,500
The top 10 departments by personnel count in 2027:
- Police: 1,895
- Fire: 828
- Solid Waste: 542
- Transit: 488
- Arts & Cultural Services: 407
- Parks & Recreation: 334
- Aviation: 313
- Health Housing Homelessness: 311
- Municipal Development: 277
- General Services: 261
TOTAL: 6,914
SHANLY ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY
While recognizing that we had pandemic impact from 2020 – 2021 and subsequent inflation, it remains challenging to reconcile the fact that the actual City of Albuquerque spending from 2019 through 2026 has been $2.2 BILLION more than it would have been if the annual spending growth had been held to the 0.71% level of 2010 thru 2018.
The most impactful new addition has been the Albuquerque Community Safety Department (ACS) for which the total cost to date has been $81.6 million. The much-touted Gateway System is generally considered to have consumed around $300 million of the $455 million one can extrapolate from the HHH (part of Family & Community Services budget until 2025) but how do we quantify its impact when we still have thousands living unhoused on the street?
One thing is certain. As a city we are spending serious money. Lost in the woods of all this money and ambiguous metrics I find myself wondering if appropriate seriousness is being applied to direct that money toward solving our city’s most pressing problems with urgency.
Referenced data in spreadsheet and PDF printable pages can be found and are publicly available at:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1K1ejyJy4EUTsiW97NXCCXOVzDdr5yJbX?usp=share_link
RESPECTFULLY,
JAEMES SHANLY
THE UNHOUSED NUMBERS IN ALBUQUERQUE
On November 17, 2025 the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness released the most recent 2025 Point-In-Time (PIT) Report for the numbers of unhoused in Albuquerque. The PIT survey found that at least 2,960 people in Albuquerque called the streets or an emergency shelter their home with nowhere else to go. Of that number, 1,367 people were completely unsheltered with no roof over their heads, living on the streets or in emergency shelters. The 2025 PIT report revealed an 8% increase in homelessness going from 2,740 in 2024 to 2,960 in 2025, an increase of 220 people.
A 2025 report by the city found 30% of individuals experiencing homelessness self report having a serious mental illness, 25% self report having a substance use disorder and upwards of 66% experience some form of mental health condition. A report by the New Mexico Justice Reinvestment Working Group found that 65% of individuals who enter the state’s criminal justice system have behavioral health needs and the criminal justice system cannot provide necessary medical treatment and facilities. A major problem is that approximately 75% to 80% of the chronic, emergency unhoused simply refuse city services, yet the city continues spending millions a year to benefit so few that need assistance.
DINELLI ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY
In the last three years, the city has spent upwards of $300 million on homeless shelters, programs and purchasing and remodeling motels for low-income housing. In 2021, the city acquired the Lovelace Hospital complex on Gibson for $15 million and then spent upwards of $90 million to remodel it into the Gateway shelter.
Mayor Keller’s approved FY/26 General Fund budget by the City Council for Health, Housing and Homeless Department (HHH) totals $52.6 million, an increase of $1.4 million, or 2.7% above the FY/25 original budget. The FY/26 approved budget lists 116 separate contracts for services benefiting directly or indirectly to the unhoused totals $53,901,355. The 116 separate contracts totaling $53,901,355 include:
- 32 for Affordable Housing Contracts totaling $30,391,436
- 12 for Emergency Shelter contracts totaling $ 6,347,819
- 16 for Health and Human Services Contracts totaling $ 1,962,486
- 28 for Homeless Support Services contracts totaling $ 5,746,188
- 11 for Mental Health Contracts totaling $ 2,995.400
- 12 for Substance Abuse contracts totaling $ 2,573,526
- 5 for Gateway Shelter operating contracts totaling $ 3,884,500
116 SERVICE CONTRACTS TOTAL CONTRACTS $ 53,901,355
The link to review the approved FY/26 budget for the HHH department, page 209, is here:
Mayor Tim Keller’s approved FY/27 General Fund budget submitted to the City Council for the Health, Housing and Homeless Department is $48.9 million and it is an increase of 9.5% or $4.3 million above the FY/26 original budget with 98 full time employees. However, listed in the HHH proposed FY/27 budget are 122 separate contracts for services directly or indirectly to the unhoused totaling $85,283,474. The 122 separate service contracts totaling $85,283,47 include:
- 34 for Affordable Housing Contracts totaling $35,534,228
- 13 for Emergency Shelter contracts totaling $10,230,537
- 14 forHealth and Human Services Contracts totaling $ 2,418,638
- 23 for Homeless Support Services contracts totaling $ 6,091,714
- 11 for Mental Health Contracts totaling $ 3,925,400
- 12 for Substance Abuse contracts totaling $ 5,530,478
- 15 for Gateway Shelter operating contracts totaling $21,552,479
122 SERVICE CONTRACTS TOTAL CONTRACTS $85,283,471
The link to review the proposed FY/27 budget for the HHH department, page 124, is here:
https://www.cabq.gov/dfa/documents/fy27-proposed-budget-with-weblink-final-4-01-2026.pdf
Being unhoused or being destitute are not crimes. Government, be it federal or local, have a moral obligation to help and assist the unhoused, especially those that are mentally ill or who are drug addicted. The city under Mayor Keller has spent upwards of $300 million to help the unhoused over the last 3 years.
The City of Albuquerque is spending upwards of $53 million (approved FY/26 budget) to $85 million (proposed FY/27 budget) a year on homeless services with 116 to 122 service provider contracts including for 5 Gateway Emergency shelters, subsidized housing, food and medical care and drug counseling.
Notwithstanding all the money spent, surveys have revealed that between 75% to 80% of the chronically unhoused refuse or decline city shelter, housing, services and financial help offered or simply say they are not satisfied with what is being offered by the city.
It’s become obvious that Mayor Keller’s programs of shelters and the astonishing funding levels for so few are not working and its an unsustainable black hole. Mayor Keller and the City Council need to find a better approach to the unhoused crisis to get them off the streets.
___________________________________
POSTSCRIPT
On May 18, 2026 the Albuquerque City Council voted to approve the City’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget with the passage of R-26-17, which appropriated $1.5 billion for operating the City Of Albuquerque for Fiscal Year 2027. The link to the related article on adoption of the FY/27 budget is here:
Albuquerque’s record $1.5 billion budget heads to the state, without Keller’s signature