CYFD moves ahead on child wellness center
Department plans to purchase property to begin process
SANTA FE — After a long saga full of political setbacks, the Children, Youth and Families Department got the green light Tuesday to move forward with the acquisition of property in Albuquerque that it intends to convert into a child wellness center.
The state Board of Finance voted unanimously to approve acquisition of a $7.7 million property — a five-building campus just south of Interstate 40 — and a $10.4 million contract to renovate the buildings, though some current tenants are expected to remain until the end of their leases.
The money for the project is expected to come from tax revenue bonds authorized under a bill signed into law this year by Gov. Susana Martinez.
CYFD Secretary Monique Jacobson said Tuesday that the new facility would give the agency a place to temporarily accommodate children removed from their homes as a result of abuse or neglect before they can be placed into foster homes.
“We want to make sure they’re cared for in those first few hours after they’re taken from often vio-
lent homes,” Jacobson said.
There are 2,611 children in foster care in New Mexico, about 1,000 of whom are in Bernalillo County, she said.
In recent years, many children in such situations have had to wait in agency offices, often eating fast food and sleeping on couches or makeshift beds, while CYFD caseworkers try to find them a safe home, said Martinez, who has made the child wellness center a priority of her administration.
In an attempt to remedy the situation, CYFD has been seeking for years to open a new child wellness center in Albuquerque. But previous attempts have ended up running into political turbulence.
A plan to buy an office complex in Southeast Albuquerque unraveled in 2015 after the Journal reported that the administration planned to pay more than six times the price the complex had been acquired for just months earlier.
And 2017 legislation that would have extended a lease at a different Albuquerque office complex — and allowed for the construction of a new CYFD building — stalled after the revelation of more than $20,000 in campaign contributions from the building’s majority owner to Martinez and her political committee.
After winning approval Tuesday, CYFD is expected to complete the purchase later this month. Renovation work could then begin in August, with the goal of a December move-in.
The new facility could represent a boost for a beleaguered agency.
CYFD officials have come under fire repeatedly in recent years for their handling of highprofile child abuse cases. Lawmakers have given the agency the ability to carry over unused budget allotments from one fiscal year to the next in an attempt to address chronic staff turnover and vacancy rates.