Skip to main content

Mental Health and Resource Providers Move into Gateway

Organizations like NAMI and Vizionz-Sankofa provide support for ABQ community

May 17, 2023

The vision to create the Gateway at the old Lovelace hospital is taking shape since the City of Albuquerque purchased the building in April, 2021. As former medical office suites are spruced up, new tenants have come on board to provide essential services for the greater Albuquerque community.

The Albuquerque offices of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) recently celebrated moving into their new office space on the 3rd floor. NAMI provides peer-to-peer support groups for individuals struggling with mental health conditions and their families. NAMI also promotes mental health advocacy and education on the local and national level, making them an asset to the entire community.   

“NAMI Albuquerque is extremely excited to be in the Gateway working with the City of Albuquerque and all the other community partners,” said David Burke, NAMI Board President. “We will be able to provide more critical services to those individuals and family members who suffer from mental health issues.”

Heading Home’s housing navigation division have also moved their office on-site, an important addition as that team will provide housing case management to Gateway Center clients.

Vizionz-Sankofa’s, a community organization in the International District has their office in an accessory building and provides resources to roughly 300 low-income and refugee families per month. Vizionz-Sankofa will also provide services to Gateway clients including financial literacy education and help replacing identification documents.

City Council has approved a lease for the UNM Community Health Worker Initiative and the City looks forward to their anticipated move-in once IT equipment is in place.

“We continue to attract the type of tenants we want to provide solid system of care” said Operations Manager Doug Chaplin. “Organizations want to be part of the vision of this health hub, and we’ll continue to work to make the best use of space.”

As construction on the first phase of the Gateway Center nears completion, the City looks forward to helping the first set of clients reach housing stability. Gateway clients will be served through the program developed at the Family Housing Navigation Center (formerly Wellness-2 Family Shelter) which has, to date, permanently housed 977 people from 302 families, proving the success of on-site case management services.

Existing tenants include Turquoise Lodge substance abuse hospital, Haven behavioral hospital, the NM Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, Fresenius Medical Care, and AMG Specialty Hospital.