Officials overseeing the city’s flagship Gateway Center and its network of projects, designed to provide services for those experiencing homelessness, have lately experienced complications with operators and contracts. The most recent snag will result in the delayed opening of what officials have said for many months is a critical and “life-saving” gap in service — Gateway’s medical sobering center.
Construction began on the 11,000-square-foot center designed to accommodate 50 people in 2024. Last November city officials welcomed a lineup of dignitaries for an advance tour, also announcing that the facility’s operator would be Listo Health — which was awarded a contract through the city’s competitive request for proposals (RFP) process.
The center was set to fully open in December, but those plans didn’t pan out.
Officials in the Health, Housing & Homelessness Department (HHH) on Tuesday, Feb. 4 announced Listo Health’s contract, which began Nov. 1, was terminated Jan. 24. Department spokesperson Connor Woods said the company wasn’t living up to the contract’s requirements, which included development and implementation of an operational plan.
“The plan was not provided in a timely manner, nor was it what was agreed upon,” Woods said.
The center never welcomed a client. Even so, Listo Health is being paid more than $60,000. Woods told City Desk ABQ that the company had been paid $40,871 so far — for personnel expenses and some supply costs — and that an outstanding invoice of $20,519 was under review.
Listo Health’s CEO had taken to social media in November to express excitement about being awarded the contract.
“We are operating the Gateway Sobering Center for the city of Albuquerque. We are excited to serve underserved communities in New Mexico and help ease the burden on local jails and emergency rooms,” Alex McCabe posted on his LinkedIn page.
The company had also begun designing a new web page dedicated to the center. Efforts by City Desk ABQ to reach McCabe for comment weren’t immediately successful.
To be sure, while contracts sometimes go south, the city’s RFP process is designed to prevent such a situation from happening in the first place. Officials are tasked with identifying and vetting potential operators, ensuring in advance that entities can meet requirements and scopes of work before an agreement is sent to the Albuquerque City Council for final approval.
City officials now project the center will open sometime in the summer. While a search for a new operator is underway, the space will be used for emergency winter overflow sheltering — 839 people had already received shelter there, officials said.
“The Medical Sobering Center will offer a transformative and life-saving service for our community, and we can’t afford to get this wrong,” Associate Chief Administrative Officer Carla Martinez, said in a Tuesday statement.
The center was originally funded in part from $4.35 million appropriated by Bernalillo County and $4.2 million in federal funds secured by New Mexico’s congressional delegation. A contract with a new operator, under a three-year agreement, would total about $7.7 million, according to the city.
Meanwhile, at least one other Gateway Center contract is in flux. The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center said earlier this month that it would not renew its contract to operate the first responder receiving area at the facility. UNM and the city — through an intergovernmental agreement — agreed that the Office for Community Health would stay past its March contract expiration until July — to give the city more time to find a replacement.