Out of the Cold
Old fire station to be used as shelter

The City of Gallup will be opening the former north side fire station for emergency shelter during the winter months to non-intoxicated people in need of a place to sleep. r. (Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent)

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — City officials knew they were getting off to a late start last week when the Council approved a new initiative to try to prevent all exposure deaths this year. So it wasted little time at least finding a facility to convert into the homeless shelter the plan calls for.

City and Fire Department personnel have already begun looking over the Department's old north-side sub-station for necessary renovations and hope to have it ready within the next few weeks. The Fire Department vacated the sub-station, on Maloney Avenue, after moving into a new building on Ninth Street.

The shelter is only one part of the city's zero-exposure-death initiative, and as City Manager Eric Honeyfield sees it, probably not the most important part. Nearly all of Gallup's exposure deaths are linked to alcohol abuse, he said, but the planned shelter, lacking the necessary state certification, won't be able to accept intoxicated people. They're automatically sent to the Na'Nizhoozhi Center, which is geared toward helping the intoxicated.

The initiative's greatest burden will fall upon the police officers who patrol the city picking up intoxicated individuals deemed a danger to themselves or others. With the city's new pro-active approach to the problem, they'll begin visiting the out-of-the-way spots transients are known to frequent nightly.

And it's not as though sober people have no place to spend a warm night now. Na'Nizhoozhi Executive Director Raymond Daw says the Center turns away no one who shows up at its door seeking shelter, whatever their blood alcohol level, and handles over a dozen people a night, up to 30 during the winter's coldest months.

But city officials believe the old sub-station could help by relieving some of the burden on the Na'Nizhoozhi Center, which wants to define itself more as a resource for alcohol abusers than as a shelter, and by handling overflow from the few other shelters around town.

Although the city plans to make the shelter a permanent Gallup resource, Honeyfield doesn't believe the old sub-station is an ideal location and hopes the city won't have to use it as a shelter past this winter.

With the cold weather already here, however, the sub-station has its advantages.

"It's a facility that the city already has and can be made quickly available," the city manager said.

And because the sub-station already belongs to the city, it won't have to pay rent each month, which could have taken a good chunk out of the $25,000 the Council devoted to the shelter. That way, the city has more to spend on staffing the shelter, a component of the operation that hasn't been fully worked out yet. If Care 66, a local non-profit group working with the city to open the shelter, can't fully staff the facility, the city might hire volunteers or what would be a much more expensive option solicit firefighters to work overtime.

Even the electrical, plumbing and safety work necessary to get the old sub-station ready as a temporary home for the shelter, however, could cost in the neighborhood of $5,000, Honeyfield said.

Fire Chief Robert Garcia plans to continue using the old sub-station as a training facility for the Fire Department during the days, and was inspecting the facility with other Department personnel Tuesday afternoon to brainstorm what renovations could be made to accommodate both the Department's and city's plans.

Honeyfield suggested preparing the facility for up to 10 nightly visitors. The Fire Department thinks it could handle up to 20. Though there's room for more in the large garage that will house the beds, the number of doors leading in or out make it safe for only so many. Garcia said the preparations could take a few weeks, but with a good roof in place and the heading system up and running, if need be, it could take people in tomorrow.

Like Honeyfield, however, he doesn't see the facility serving as a shelter for more than a few years.

The city is working with Care 66 to build a permanent home for a shelter with federal funds, but those funds are merely a wish at this point the building years away at best. They'd prefer such a building go up near the Na'Nizhoozhi Center, hoping that would make it easier for the shelter and center to team up on some services that could help both their clients.

In the meantime, the old north-side sub-station can help keep a few more people out of the cold this winter.

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Last modified: May 24, 2005