In response to the controversial pallet home village proposal, Española Mayor John Ramon Vigil will change the membership and name of his ad hoc committee he created to address homelessness.
The Unhoused and Unsheltered Committee will become the Coalition to Affect Homelessness when Vigil makes an announcement of the new members on Thursday.
“This Committee being redone is trying to broaden the perspective and not under the perspective of trying to identify housing for one population,” Vigil said.
The current Committee members include District 3 City Councilor Denise Benavidez, District 1 Councilor Pedro Valdez, District 2 Councilor Nanette Rodriguez and District 3 Councilor Felicia Archuleta-Toya.
While the membership of the new Coalition to Affect Homelessness will not be announced until after presstime, Vigil said Social Services Director Michelle Fraire will continue to be the committee’s administrative support staff.
He also said that he specifically decided to not include the words “social services” in the new committee name in order to create a distinction between its recommendations and the work of Fraire’s department.
Ad hoc committees can be created at the discretion of the mayor, and cannot make any legally-binding decisions for the city. Current and past committees have focused on historical preservation, recreation and public relations.
District 4 Councilor Sam LeDoux said he also believes there needs to be a change with the city’s approach to issues affecting the homeless, but disagrees with Vigil’s approach.
Accountability and communication have been the biggest challenges between the council and the ad hoc committees, he said, and a reshuffling of the membership is not going to fix this.
“I’ll be interested in seeing what the mayor does with his changes, but I think the best option would be rolling this ad hoc committee into the Public Safety Committee, that way all districts are represented and meetings are more regular and accountable,” LeDoux said.
The Public Safety Committee is a standing council committee that meets on a regular basis, with agendas posted on the city’s website. While the meetings are not publicly streamed online, the public can attend them in person.