The El Paso City Council will have one more chance in the coming weeks to preserve funding for the Welcome Center, a focal point of the city’s homelessness response, before federal pandemic relief funds expire at the end of August.
The decision at City Hall could impact people like Marcos Antonio Rivera, 33, who had been living on the streets for about two years because he could not acclimate to everyday life after being released from prison. The “culture shock,” he said, led him to homelessness.
Rivera was among some 225 individuals who were approached by volunteers over a recent three-day intensive street outreach campaign to get medical care, housing and mental health services to people living on the streets.
Rivera and about 15 others accepted the help and were taken to the Welcome Center at 201 E. Ninth Ave. in South El Paso – an intake and coordination hub where individuals receive emergency overnight shelter, food, showers, clothes and medical screenings while longer term support and shelter is arranged for them.
The Welcome Center, which opened in August 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic and the influx of migrants, had been operating using American Rescue Plan Act pandemic relief dollars. The federal funding was meant to help communities recover from the pandemic, including supporting homelessness services and other public programs.
Now, the City Council must decide whether to allocate the center $380,000 in ARP interest earnings the Welcome Center requested to keep the center operational for six months while it seeks out other funding – a discussion expected to take place Tuesday as part of the city’s budget and tax rate presentation.
“I’m pretty hopeful that the council will be able to adopt that – at least the majority council,” said city Rep. Chris Canales, who has advocated for funding to keep the center open.
A similar effort failed June 23, when two city representatives reversed their votes approving the funding, creating a tie that was broken by Mayor Renard Johnson against the proposal. That proposal sought to use the $430,000 available in ARPA interest.
If the funds are not used for the Welcome Center, they would remain unallocated. The funds can be used for any purpose and do not expire.
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The center’s annual operating costs are about $720,000. Martin said. The center received about $684,000 per year from ARPA funds. The center has also received about $349,000 from the federally funded Community Development Block Grants administered by the city since 2022.
“One way or another, it will take a new funding source in order for the city to get it new funding – it’s (the Welcome Center) been funded by the city, but not with city money. It’s the city administering federal funds that we had access to in the wake of the pandemic,” Canales said. He said he believes the city should consider general fund dollars for ongoing operations.
While the city said it will adjust “operational protocols” to continue providing outreach and service referrals if the funding isn’t approved, some advocates say without a 24/7 intake hub, some homeless people may end up in jail or hospitals or remain on the streets.
“It’s a distinct location where they can come in, they can feel welcome (and) we take care of their immediate needs, and then we do the triage and the assessment,” said John Martin, who has served as executive director for the Opportunity Center for the Homeless for more than a decade.
The Welcome Center, operated by the Opportunity Center, is housed in the Border Farmworkers Center building. The farmworkers center operates on the building’s second floor and leases the remaining space to the Opportunity Center.
“In the absence of a location such as the Welcome Center, if you speak to (police) or even the hospitals, their options are jail or the hospital, and that’s really not a humane way of working with individuals who are down on their luck,” Martin added.
For Rivera, the Welcome Center marked an important step toward finding a more stable living situation.
“So my dog – because of him – I’m gonna do it (get resources) for him because if it wasn’t for Wero, I wouldn’t have come to the center. I thank God that I met him and (now) things are coming into place,” Rivera said about the sand-colored pitbull who’s been his companion for a few months.
The Welcome Center was created through the city’s El Paso Helps Initiative, which brings together more than 40 public service agencies and nonprofit organizations such as Project Amistad and United Way of El Paso County to provide a coordinated response to homelessness.
“Every time someone moves through the Welcome Center, that is someone who is not on the street anymore and is looking to access services, so, I think having that available is exactly what we need,” Canales said.
The center serves about 1,070 people a year and can hold anywhere from 50 to more than 180 individuals per night depending on the circumstances, Welcome Center Director Bill Irvin said.
“We don’t turn anyone away,” Irvin said.
On any given day in El Paso, about 800 individuals are homeless, according to the El Paso Coalition for the Homeless Point in Time census in January 2024. Of those, about 190 were living on the streets and about 600 in emergency shelters.
Last week, a street outreach team of more than 100 volunteers led by the El Paso Veterans Affairs canvassed the city from Tuesday through Thursday and brought people experiencing homelessness to the Welcome Center.
A homeless veteran approached by the team agreed to go to the Welcome Center. After intake and receiving some help there, he was able to go to the Veterans Transitional Living Center, Martin said.
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While bringing 15 of the more than 200 homeless people contacted might not seem like much, Martin said every person counts.
“These are incredible numbers at this point, albeit, those that really don’t understand homelessness and what it means would see that they’re relatively low,” Martin said. “But the reality of it is, it’s actually quite the opposite.”
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