Catholic Charities

Catholic Charities Enters Their 75th Year

There is a lot of excitement always generated after the Christmas holiday and welcoming in a New Year. However, 2020 is an especially exciting time at Catholic Charities as we are marching towards our 75th anniversary this year. Our anniversary is on December 26, 2020, St. Stephen’s Feast Day (one of the seven original Deacons of the Church charged with looking after the welfare of the people of God by the apostles.) Trying to throw a party on December 26th just might be met with a little resistance. Therefore, our official celebration will be November 21, 2020. What a coincidence – that is the same date as the St. Nicholas Ball, so mark your calendar!

Board of Directors Changes

This New Year finds us welcoming two new board members: Dennis Garcia and Alan Weitzel. Mr. Garcia is senior VP of US Bank; Mr. Weitzel is retired after a career at Intel and Energy Balance & Integration. We are pleased to have these talented gentlemen on the board.

Sadly, we are bidding farewell to two members as well: Carmel Rippberger and Philip Menicucci. We were blessed with their service and thank them for their time and talent in service to the mission of Catholic Charities.

“The Catholic Charities Board of Directors is excited to work to fulfill the mission of the agency during its 75th anniversary of service in New Mexico,” says incoming chair, Lisa Trujillo. “Putting faith into action to improve the lives of those in need is our focus. Compassion and empathy for all is central to our values, and honoring human dignity is our vision. We are most grateful for your prayers and continued support in 2020!”

Generations at West Mesa In keeping with the One Albuquerque spirit of collaborating to be part of the solution to homelessness in Albuquerque, Catholic Charities is proud to announce a new collaborative housing assistance project.

Generations at West Mesa, located near 57th Street and Central, will focus on grandparents raising grandchildren. Catholic Charities and Gorman & Company developed this 54-unit affordable housing complex, with support from the City of Albuquerque, the New Mexico MFA and various investors.

There will be a grand opening on Thursday, February 27. Deputy Director of Constituent Services, Helen Maestas, will represent the City of Albuquerque at this event. Our Executive Director, Jim Gannon, will speak and representatives from Gorman and the MFA will join him.

Tony’s Gift Tony’s Gift is a donor-advised fund, a donation from a couple to honor the bride’s brother, which will distribute $100K a year. These funds are committed for the next 10 years to help homeless households, counter the disappearance of government funding and help folks who have challenges and are not readily put into neat categories of eligibility. This is a total donation of $1 million. James Walker, Director of Center for Self Sufficiency & Housing has developed a great plan of use and benefit with the assistance of Associate Director, Quinn Donnay. The fund will plug a hole in resources for families preventing them from moving into safe secure housing.

State of the City Community Celebration And speaking of the city… Catholic Charities was well represented at this community event on January 11th at the Albuquerque Convention Center. There were about 150 participants and Carolina Romero, our Programmatic Outreach Liaison, had a great table set up with a variety of information on our programs.

In Loving Memory of Ken Sanchez

We lost a very good friend of Catholic Charities with the untimely passing of City Councilor Ken Sanchez. He was a devoted public servant representing the Westside since 2005. “Ken Sanchez will be missed, “says Jim Gannon, Chief Executive Officer of Catholic Charities. “As a City Councilor, he showed true concern for his neighbors and the community of his district. As Catholic Charities and dozens of other agencies, along with the City of Albuquerque, worked together to respond to the families seeking safety in our nation of immigrants and their descendants, Ken not only reached out to Catholic Charities but he actually came to meet the families. He reassured trembling mothers holding their children as they shared sometimes quite horrifying personal stories. Ken came, saw, informed, and took action. That was Ken. His commitment to his community and to the City of Albuquerque was very real.”

Center for Self-Sufficiency and Housing Catholic Charities gets many calls each month from persons who are seeking some type of support with housing. They can be homeless and seeking full housing or are they may just be asking for assistance with rent. We thought it might be good to offer some guidelines as to requirements for both. Housing If an individual is homeless, they must work through the NM Coalition to End Homelessness. We do not do our own referrals, but work with referrals from the Coalition. They may reach the Coalition at 505.217.9570.

Catholic Charities Rental Assistance Program To qualify for our Rental Assistance Program clients must have:

1. A documented Writ of Restitution. This means the landlord has filed for eviction and they have an ASSIGNED COURT DATE. If they do not have the Writ, they DO NOT qualify.

2. They must fall within a certain income bracket based on their family size.

3. Their apartment must fall within the Fair Market Rate as established by HUD. If a landlord is charging too much, this may disqualify them as well.

Driving 4 Dignity! Did you know you can help support the mission and programs at Catholic Charities simply by donating that old, unused (even non-working!) vehicle? Your gift can provide education, childcare, housing assistance, legal assistance, job opportunities, and senior transportation to our neighbors in New Mexico.

We’ll take cars, trucks, motorcycles, trailers, boats – pretty much anything. Simply give us a call at 505.724.4670 or go online at www.ccasfnm.org.

• Your donation will help our efforts to serve vulnerable individuals and families in our community.

• Avoid the hassle of selling your vehicle, having to place an ad, field phone calls, and show your car.

• If your vehicle does not run, we will still pick it up free of charge.

• Free up space in your garage or your driveway! • Your donation will qualify you for an IRS tax deduction.