Judges, state public defenders and city officials in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are taking steps to curb a cycle of missed court dates and arrest warrants for crimes related to outdoor living, which leaves about half of the county jail population homeless.
Eighteen months ago, judges in Bernalillo County, which includes Albuquerque, noticed an increase in homelessness-related charges, including obstructing sidewalks, illegal camping and illegal storage of personal property. They said they also found that some people who received summonses had no address and were missing court dates. People living on the streets often do not have cell phones or permanent addresses, making it difficult to know when they will appear in court.
Failure to appear in court may result in a warrant being issued and the person could be sent to jail if they encounter the officer again.
A memo issued by Criminal Division Chief Judge Michelle Castillo Dowler says Albuquerque police will issue a citation for nine homelessness-related crimes starting July 1 and will schedule a related court appearance for Friday. Judges predict that by holding municipal ordinance cases on a specific day each week, fewer people will miss court dates and fewer warrants for failure to appear.
Officials will also try to use the hearings set to address the issue in other ways. Caseworkers and attorneys from the New Mexico Public Defender’s Office are scheduled to attend Friday’s hearing. Denica Torres, a district attorney with the public defender’s office, said the public defender’s office is working to provide access to local treatment and service providers outside of the courtroom.
“It’s like a one-stop shop on Fridays,” she said. Her office, the district attorney’s office and the courts have been working to address homelessness-related cases since last year. The city of Albuquerque also set aside $200,000 for a city attorney or paralegal to assist with Friday’s efforts, Torres said.
“We can’t just put vulnerable people on bikes through prison and back on the streets,” Mayor Tim Keller said at a recent news conference. “Neither is the right answer.”
The changes came after ProPublica reported in March that city ordinance fees related to street life had increased under Keller’s tenure. In 2025, there will be 1,256 people charged with sidewalk obstruction, nearly six times the number in the previous eight years combined. More than 3,000 trespassing charges were handed down, the highest since 2017. The number of illegal camping incidents also rose to 704 from 113 a year earlier, according to previously unreported county data.
The number of charges for the nine offenses that will be part of Friday’s court hearing continues to rise from 579 in January to April 2025 to 2,072 in the same period this year, according to court data. (The judge did not include trespassing in the charges scheduled for Friday.)
ProPublica found that the number of people designated as “transient” or homeless at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center has skyrocketed in recent years, from 3,670 in 2022 to nearly 12,000 in 2025. Last week, almost 53% of people in prison were recorded as homeless.
Keller did not respond to ProPublica’s questions or requests for comment. But he has previously said arrests and interrogations are not the solution to Albuquerque’s controversial problem of homelessness. The city’s homeless population more than doubled from 2022 to 2025, while the increase in homeless people incarcerated by the county more than tripled.
Keller, who has been mayor since 2017, has responded by deploying more city workers to clear encampments and stepping up enforcement of crimes related to homelessness. Keller previously defended the actions of Albuquerque police.
“What we’re doing is following the letter of the law,” he said. “I think there are a lot of things that are more punitive that a lot of people would want to do, but we haven’t done that because it would be inappropriate.”
