Albuquerque Route 66 Motels Become Affordable Housing

Albuquerque developers are transforming some of the city’s vacant motels and homes into affordable housing. As Jack Herrera explains in High Country News, the city needs up to 30,000 new units to meet demand. “Meanwhile, plywood covers the windows of unused buildings, many of them one-story faux-adobe Pueblo Revival structures. In 2018, a municipal task force estimated that 1,200 to 1,300 homes were either vacant, abandoned or generally substandard.”

Rehabilitating older housing solves two problems: It revitalizes an economy that boomed in some neighborhoods and left others blighted. And it’s a rallying cry against scarcity, where the remnants of a past collapse become symbols of new life: boarded-up buildings transformed into new homes for those on the margins.

While rents in some U.S. cities have fallen from their pandemic-era peaks, Albuquerque rents remain nearly 50 percent higher than in 2019. Last year, the city launched a $4 million program aimed at supporting adaptive reuse projects. Local developer Karina Chavez is now converting four former Route 66 motels into new housing and a food hall to ensure access to fresh foods and produce for nearby residents.