The Española Pathways Shelter, the city’s only low-barrier emergency homeless shelter, faces an uncertain future after the Española Planning and Zoning Commission voted Thursday to deny its Special Use Permit, threatening closure.
Shelter Executive Director Dena Moscola said the commission’s decision hinged primarily on two issues: a delayed fence completion and the shelter’s operation of four to five nights per week during the coldest months, rather than seven.
“Closing the only overnight shelter in town because it is operating less than 365 nights a year just doesn’t make sense because it reduces access to a tremendous amount of services and greatly decreases safety for our clients and the community,” Moscola said.
She emphasized that the shelter is closer than ever to securing funding for seven-day operation, making the decision particularly perplexing.
Pathways serves as a resource for many disenfranchised Españolans, offering overnight shelter, hygiene kits, showers, bathrooms, phone charging, daily meals, clothing and case management for IDs, food stamps, insurance, detox, rehab and housing. It also hosts mental health and medical services from providers like La Familia’s Health Care for the Homeless and Porch Light Health’s Española clinic.
“Pathways is a unique hub for services because this approach is proven to lead to faster stabilization than if services are scattered around town which contributes to ending homelessness,” Moscola said of the shelter’s holistic approach.
Since October 2023, the shelter has served more than 1,350 individuals, helped more than 476 enter drug treatment, and housed more than 150 people. The closure would force clients — 85% of whom are local, according to Moscola — to “return to an abusive living situation or sleep in parks, streets, vehicles, abandoned buildings, the front steps to Española businesses, or someone’s backyard and they will still need to meet their needs which they will do in public and private property which often leads to increased crime, unwanted situations and sometimes death,” she said.
Moscola found the Planning and Zoning Commission’s process unprofessional, particularly criticizing the chairman’s conduct.
“It was disappointing to hear the reason for the commission’s rejection of our permit,” she said, noting that despite 110 pages of documentation and support from state agencies, funders and the governor, the commission dismissed their progress. “During a process that should have taken only an hour at most, took up the first 3 1/2 hours of the meeting. It consisted of mostly the chairman rudely criticizing and yelling condescendingly and quite disrespectfully at the city planning director, the fire marshal, the chief of police, and the city social director, as they presented their honest reports. No one should ever be spoken to the way this team was treated.”
The Rio Grande SUN attempted to contact Planning and Zoning Commission chair JR Trujillo for comment but neither a phone number nor email is listed publicly on the city’s website and the city’s administration could not provide any way to contact him.
“Many attendees approached me afterwards stating that it was quite obvious to them that the Commission’s decision was made before the hearing started,” Moscola said. “Many attendees left very disturbed after witnessing this very cruel treatment towards our well respected city leaders.”
As of now, no closure date has been set for the shelter and Moscola remains hopeful that a resolution can still be found.
“There are multiple paths our board of directors is now considering, and this is by no means an end of the discussion,” Moscola said.
She said the shelter can still appeal to the city council.
“On a positive note, I’m very happy that Pathways had the opportunity to present its case for public record,” Moscola said, noting that correcting misinformation publicly is a step forward. “It is encouraging to know that now we are finally moving forward and the misinformation about Pathways is being corrected and on public record.”