Abeyta plans to push affordable housing in new role

Nov. 26—Roman "Tiger" Abeyta's new office at the Santa Fe Community Housing Trust still appears somewhat bare.

There is one item he keeps handy: a map of potential plans for the third phase of development at the Tierra Contenta community in southwest Santa Fe. On Wednesday — his seventh day as executive director of the Housing Trust — Abeyta flattened the map across a table in his office.

"This is all unbuilt right now," he said, pointing at prospective townhouses, apartment complexes and single-family home parcels. "None of this exists. ... I've got to sit down with [Tierra Contenta board members] and find out, 'What's the plan?' "

After spending 11 years heading the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Fe/Del Norte, Abeyta said he left the organization because he was ready for a new challenge: affordable housing.

"The organization seems like it's kind of in the same situation as when I took over the Boys & Girls Clubs," Abeyta said of the Housing Trust. "It's a nonprofit, and they've had directors come and go over the last three or four years. It hasn't been really stable, so maybe I can come in and help stabilize it the way I did the Boys & Girls Clubs."

During Abeyta's time leading the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Fe/Del Norte, the organization faced six lawsuits related to allegations of abuse against its former director — and onetime Santa Fe mayor — Louis Montaño. Earlier this year, the organization also settled with the federal government for $1.4 million over violations related to its use of grant funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2003 and 2004.

Abeyta proudly declared he played a significant role in keeping the Boys & Girls Clubs afloat while dealing with problems stemming from the organization's previous leadership.

He also touted some of the organization's accomplishments that occurred while he stood at the helm: expanding to Las Vegas, N.M., opening a teen center in Santa Fe Place mall and earning national recognition for the clubs along with the 2022-23 Southwest Youth of the Year award.

"I always told myself, when faith isn't needed to do this job anymore, it's probably going to be time to be done," Abeyta said of leading the Boys & Girls Clubs. "But I feel like I cleaned all of these messes up from the past and left it in way better shape than I found it."

Abeyta attributes that drive to the way he is "wired," pointing out that early in his career he worked his way up from dogcatcher to planner to county manager in Santa Fe County. He has also served the city of Santa Fe as a planning commissioner and as a city councilor. In July, he was appointed to represent District 4 on the Board of Education for Santa Fe Public Schools.

Advocacy for the south side of Santa Fe is a recurring theme in Abeyta's career, having grown up in a county housing project on Camino de Jacobo off Airport Road. He now lives in a home in Tierra Contenta that he purchased about 20 years ago.

His new leadership role at Santa Fe Community Housing Trust will revolve around a notorious issue throughout the city and the county.

"Everyone knows affordable housing is a problem here," Abeyta said, adding one part of the solution is to build more homes.

And building more houses comprises a central part of Abeyta's plan for the organization to play a role in bringing more affordable housing to the region.

At present, Santa Fe Community Housing Trust owns 207 affordable rental units over three complexes — The Village Sage, Soleras Station and Stagecoach Apartments — and the nonprofit is sitting on property from former phases of Tierra Contenta on which Abeyta is planning to start building 20 homes in early 2023.

"I would like see that number double or triple every year," Abeyta said, adding there could be two or three subdivisions like that going up at once. "I would like to be more aggressive when it comes to actually building for Santa Fe residents than the Housing Trust has been in the last four or five years."

Abeyta said the Housing Trust's projects have likely experienced delays due to supply chain issues and other problems stemming from the pandemic and economic downturn, but he said he is prepared to address those problems and start ramping up construction.

He acknowledged Homewise, another nonprofit developer in Santa Fe, probably has the stronger brand for affordable housing these days, but Abeyta said he wants to work with that organization and others, plus the city and county, to solve the affordable housing crisis together.

Abeyta said one of the first things he did upon taking the new job was call Mike Loftin, CEO of Homewise, for a conversation.

"I don't compete with people; I work with them," Abeyta said. "I'm more interested in the community's affordable housing problem being addressed and being a part of the solution than being the only one that has to be the solution."

Abeyta said he sees the displacement of Santa Fe locals as one of the most pressing problems factoring into the slow disappearance of Hispanic culture.

"That's how you lose your culture: when people move out of your community who were born and raised here," he said. "The obelisk and fiestas — for some people, those are important for preserving our culture. But if our children and our grandchildren can't afford to buy a home here, then fiestas and Zozobra and all of that is going to go away all on its own."

Abeyta said after working for more than a decade with youth at the Boys & Girls Clubs, he is interested in serving those same communities as they grow older and present different needs.

"When these kids become teens and young adults, they have a choice to live here or not, and right now they don't," he said. "There's no guarantee that they're going to be able to live here just because they grew up here. Now — in the role that I'm in — hopefully I'll be able to put a lot of those teens who went to my club in a home as young adults."