A move is now underway in Santa Fe to increase housing opportunities for those who are homeless through a system of micro communities.
Looking at numbers that have more than doubled in the last three years, contributing to a currently homeless population more than around 750 people, the City has determined that an answer may be found via the construction of unconventional housing.
In an address to a homeless summit meeting, Lia Azul Salaverry, City of Santa Fe Housing Director, said the micro community principle “focuses on small, individual non-congregate shelter units that move someone directly from an encampment into a safe private space as the first real step towards housing.”
A new community is slated to go up on a vacant site at 2395 Richards Avenue near Santa Fe Fire Station Number 7, some six miles to the southwest of downtown Santa Fe.
Mayor Michael Garcia, who was elected to office last year on a platform that included building more affordable housing, has promoted the concept of a “continuum of care,” which transitions residents from the micro communities to affordable housing, and finally the actual purchase of a home.
“We can all sit around and provide criticism and complaints,” Garcia remarked during the same homeless summit. More importantly, the mayor continued, “We need solutions at this moment in time.”
Last year, the city released a publication called the Micro Community Engagement Report in which it was noted that an initial micro community, located at the site of the Christ Lutheran Church at 1701 Arroyo Chamiso Road, had included ten small shelters. The pilot effort had, as of mid-2025, “successfully sheltered 36 individuals, transitioning nine to permanent housing.”
The report pinpointed the Richards Avenue site as one that was “identified as the most feasible option based on size, proximity to services, transportation, and access to utilities.”
The document also said that the city was interested in pursuing a “comprehensive strategy that includes prevention, improved shelter options, housing-focused programs, and community partnerships.”
The essence of the effort centers on the deployment of pallet units, which are prefabricated and can be put together in less than a day. Late last year members of the Santa Fe City Council approved a resolution calling for the construction of a micro community in each of the city’s four council districts by 2027.
July 10, 2026
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of City of Santa Fe
