KarunaNews Story

Like many mid-size cities, Albuquerque has a housing affordability problem. Housing costs have risen almost 50% since 2019, and the city needs as many as 30,000 new units to keep up with the demand. Meanwhile, plywood covers the windows of unused buildings. In 2018, a task force estimated that 1,200-1,300 homes were either vacant substandard. The city is also home to a collection of crumbling hotels. Some of these are former motels, which, like the city of Two Guns, went out of business when Route 66 was officially removed from the highway system in 1985. Others fell into a state of decay as the city’s economy and reputation changed. But Albuquerque has recently ramped up an effort to rescue these old houses and hotels and turn them into new and more affordable homes. Last year, the city created a program that offered developers $4 million to turn hotels and other existing buildings into apartments. It’s not a new idea: In the 2010s, for example, developers reclaimed a string of old Route 66 motels, using federal tax incentives to turn them into new housing. Helping people stabilize their housing situation has positive follow-on effects; it influences economic stability, health, education and overall quality of life.