APD officer and community partners help father and 4-year old son get a home

Thurs. Sept. 30, 2021

ALBUQUERQUE – After a year of living in and out of shelters and struggling with homelessness, a father and his four year-old son have a home thanks to APD officers and many community partners.

About two months ago, at around midnight, a security guard at the Alvarado Transit Center approached Downtown Public Safety District Officer Jordan Moenaert about a father and his four year-old that had nowhere to go. There are two shelters that accept fathers with children and neither were available at the time for this family.

At one point they were living in a van, but it was towed away with all of their belongings and documentation. Officer Moenaert contacted all of the resources available and couldn’t find a place for the father and son. With no other options, the officer took them to a motel and paid for several nights to buy time to get them housed.

For the next two months APD’s Public Safety Echo Coordinator worked with various agencies, charities and churches, and were able to pay to keep them safe in a motel.

Health Care for the Homeless found a housing voucher through the Linkages Program and began the process of qualifying the family. They provided motel vouchers for three weeks and the remaining 35 nights were covered by Pay it Forward, First Presbyterian Church, Heading Home – ABQ StreetConnect, individual donors and the father through his work for a motel.

CABQ Family and Community Services identified other support needs and registered the child into a city pre-school program. The Downtown Community Schools Collaborative helped identify other needed resources.

Businesses and individuals in the Downtown community helped as well with financial and food donations from the Silver Street Market along with John Marshall Health and Social Services Center.

Thanks to this community effort, the Downtown Public Safety District officers and staff helped the family move into their new home last week.  Donations came in from                 

Catholic Social Services, officers, staff, donors through Firefighter Random Acts, the downtown community, and others to make this a home.

The family will continue in the Linkages Program that provides treatment and support along with the housing.