A SHOCKING CASE STUDY

perfect storm of lax or nonexistent legislative protections, landlord coddling, and a poorly administered and needlessly complex New Mexican housing bureaucracy. 7900 Bell is no exception to this perfect storm; in fact, it may be the storm’s eye.

perpetrate a terrible disservice to their desperate tenants. Their gaming the system was verified by Bernalillo County housing officials who, for some time, had been getting tenant reports about the dilapidated circumstances they lived in, and were frustrated by the owner’s lack of responsiveness.

Ten months later, the saga is still ongoing and the ShotCaller app used to track APD and fire calls proves the conditions there are getting worse. Benefiting from open lines of communication shared with the APD and the AFR’s ADAPT program, the UpLift staff is waiting to hear if 7900 Bell’s stagnant situation will finally call for an escalation on the city or county’s part.

The UpLift staff learned how 7900 Bell’s property owner used the housing voucher program to

In the meantime, the conditions that have been willfully neglected at 7900 Bell serve only to demoralize residents and perpetuate conditions that foster stereotypes and scapegoating and disrupt any possibility of long-term community resiliency. 7900 Bell, like much of the ID, needs system-level interventions right now so that the persistently negative narrative of housing instability can build to a positive conclusion. But for now, the property is so substandard as to be unbelievable.