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This is a new feature that the West Side Dems is sharing until the November 4 local elections. We are asking all our Democratic candidates on the West Side for their views on specific issues each week. Their unedited responses are unedited, except for formatting. Candidates are presented in the order of city council district on the West Side. These are all the candidates who responded to this question.
QUESTION: HOMELESS HOUSING: Homelessness Programs at the city and state levels are attempting to resolve or mitigate issues related to our unhoused neighbors but progress is slow. How would you allocate resources to address access and affordability of housing while protecting property rights and ensuring that all citizens housed and housed are safe and secure?
Answers:
Ahern Griego
Candidate for Albuquerque City Council District 1
We must recognize that housing policy is about more than building new homes. It’s about keeping people in the homes they already have, creating new opportunities across income levels, and ensuring the most vulnerable among us are treated with compassion. Preserving and maintaining the existing stock of affordable housing must be a top priority. The City should work with landlords and property owners, offering tax reductions or temporary tax eliminations in exchange for keeping units affordable for a guaranteed period. It’s a smarter use of resources to preserve affordability now than to build our way out later.
Greater investment should also be directed toward mixed-income developments. Residents shouldn’t be locked out of affordable housing because they earn slightly too much. Mixed-income neighborhoods lower costs for everyone and strengthen communities. Expanding the City’s initiative to convert hotels and motels into affordable housing would provide an immediate boost in available units.
Resources should be put toward developing more starter homes—small single-family houses that help young families build equity. To make these loans accessible, the City can partner with credit unions to create a loan-guarantee fund for small mortgages that traditional banks often avoid.
Efforts should also focus on empowering builders to build. The permitting process needs to be streamlined, and technology should be used to create an instant approval system for projects that meet zoning and schematic requirements.
Casitas, or accessory dwelling units, are another key solution for multi-generational and affordable living. The City should invest in small grant and loan programs through credit unions to help families build them.
Finally, resources must go toward expanding legal aid, renter assistance, and the Gateway Center to provide healthcare, addiction recovery, and job placement services—ensuring compassionate, people-centered solutions to homelessness.
Daniel Leiva
Candidate for Albuquerque City Council District 1
Housing is a human right, and we need to act like it.
My approach is housing first: we expand affordable and supportive housing while connecting people to vital services like mental health care, addiction treatment, and job training. We’ll remove construction barriers and fund what works to provide stable housing.
Instead of criminalization or displacement, we’ll use coordinated outreach through Albuquerque Community Safety and our service providers. Safe neighborhoods and compassion aren’t opposites. Everyone in our city deserves stability and dignity, and we must work to ensure no one is left on the streets.
Stephanie Tellez
Candidate for Albuquerque City Council District 1
Homelessness is one of Albuquerque’s most urgent moral and civic challenges. Despite good intentions and numerous programs provided by the city progress has been slow because we continue to design solutions for our unhoused community instead of with them. If we want lasting change, we must start by listening to the voices of those most directly affected.
True progress begins with inclusion. Too often, we assume we know what’s best for people living on the streets, yet we rarely ask them what they need or why they may refuse services. Many of our unhoused neighbors have faced trauma, systemic inequities, or have lost trust in institutions meant to help them. If we are serious about creating effective solutions, we must treat the unhoused not as a problem to manage but as partners in the work of rebuilding lives. I will advocate for formal mechanisms — like lived-experience advisory boards
Absentee Voting Started October 7
- You can vote absentee in person at the Clerk’s Annex (1500 Lomas Blvd NW Suite A) from Tuesday, October 7 through Friday, October 17, Monday–Friday, 8am-5pm. Starting October 18, all 20 Early Voting Convenience Centers will be open through Election Day.
- Request your absentee ballot online today! Ballots will be mailed starting October 7. You can return your completed ballot by mail (with the pre-paid envelope) or hand-deliver it to any early voting or Election Day polling site from October 7 through Election Day, November 4.
- Absentee voting closes Tuesday, October 21—ballots will no longer be mailed after that date.
Mayoral Forums and Debates
- Thursday, October 16, 2025, 9-11:00 am, Mayoral Forum hosted by Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors & RECPAC, Event Center Auditorium, 1635 University Blvd NE.
- Thursday, October 23, 2025, 4-6:00 pm, Mayoral Forum hosted by the Greater Albuquerque Hotel & Lodging Association (GAHLA), at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1901 University Blvd NE.
Local Democratic candidates in races on the West Side are invited to submit candidate events to WSD at Info@westsidedems.org by 8 pm Sunday.
State Representative and conservation attorney Matthew McQueen is running for NM Land Commissioner.
Ahren Griego is running for City Council District 1.
Ready to Make an Impact?
Share Your Skills with WSD
WSD is a growing organization in numbers, power and prestige. This is your invitation to become an influential member of our team by volunteering.
If you are tech savvy, volunteer to work with our webmasters. If you take good photos, volunteer to take pictures at our meetings and events. If you are interested in the State Legislature, volunteer to advocate and keep track of legislation. If you’re interested in City Council or County Commission, volunteer to follow their meetings and report to our membership. If you have a little time to call or text, you contact our members about meetings and events.
We need volunteers to help us in our mission to keep the West Side blue and to fight to keep our democracy. If you’d like to write, we have a place for you If social media is your thing, let us know you are willing to help with that. If you’re interested in volunteering in any way, contact chair@westsidedems.org.
Also, if you would like us to cover an issue that we haven’t addressed, contact info@westsidedems.org.
Join Us
Members of West Side Dems are welcome to come to our executive committee meetings. We meet on the first Saturday of the month.
For more information about when and where we meet, contact info@westsidedems.org.
NEW! Protest in Tijeras on Sunday mornings, 9 – 10 am at 487 & NM-333.
NEW! Weekly Friday vigil in Santa Fe, Sandoval, and West Alameda, 12-1 pm.
Join People Against Tyranny every Tuesday 11am to NOON protesting the chaos, divisiveness and cruelty of Donny-2-Dolls’ wreckage! We’re in the Northeast Heights at the intersection of Montgomery and Juan Tabo.
There’s plenty of parking in the shopping centers on each corner. Bring your signs, your voices, noisemakers, bodies and souls, and your friends!
Please do not engage with hecklers (we haven’t had many) and allow pedestrians to get through.
Alamagordo 10 am Every Saturday
Honk and Wave Event Otero County — more info here
Members of West Side Dems are welcome to come to our executive committee meetings. We meet on the first Saturday of the month from 2-4 pm. For more information about where, contact info@westsidedems.org.
So you can’t make a meeting? You can zoom the meeting by accessing info@westsidedems.org and requesting a zoom link. A recording will also be available at westsidedems.org
West Side Dems Immigration Info Hub
“If the rights of one person are denied, the rights of all of us are denied. This concept of mass deportation is very frightening. So West Side Dems will develop a hub of information about immigration and mass deportation.”
— Dorothy Wilkinson
Read Dorothy’s editorial on why immigration is so important.
Click here to see our new IMMIGRATION PAGE, with ways to get involved.
“If the rights of one person are denied, the rights of all of us are denied. This concept of mass deportation is very frightening. So West Side Dems will develop a hub of information about immigration and mass deportation.”
— Dorothy Wilkinson
Read Dorothy’s editorial on why immigration is so important.
Click here to see our new IMMIGRATION PAGE, with ways to get involved.
Our Mission
To Serve the 88,000 Democrats
Living on the West Side
Democrats Care!
We encourage and support candidates who will work for the good of everyone in our community. We believe in a government that is truly “of the people, by the people, and for the people”…not just for corporations, Wall Street, or the rich.
United By A Common Goal…
Social justice and human rights are more important than corporate profits. We seek to improve the quality of life for all of our residents through grass-roots support of candidates who listen and work to implement liberal programs and legislation.
Get Involved…
Your candidates can’t win without your help. Canvassing, phone banking, word-of-mouth, volunteering, and donating are all ways to work together to achieve our common goals.