Kayla McHale/For The Independent
Alexis Lucero, lead manager of the Gallup Emergency Warming Shelter, prepares beds for guests as the temporary shelter opens to provide overnight warmth, meals and basic services for individuals experiencing homelessness during extreme cold conditions in Gallup.
Gallup Emergency Warming Shelter, a place of refuge for Gallup’s most vulnerable
GALLUP – Faced with frigid temperatures and a spike in weather-related injuries, Gallup’s newest Emergency Warming Shelter, located in the Howard Johnson Ballroom at 2915 Historic Highway 66, is free and open to all individuals and families. The shelter has quickly become a keystone in both protecting the city’s most vulnerable residents and collecting vital data on homelessness.
It opened its doors on Dec. 22 and will be open to those who seek shelter through Feb. 27.
“Our initial priority was working on housing, but with emergency funding becoming available, we shifted to shelter planning,” said Debra Martinez, Gallup’s Behavioral Health Manager.
Dr. Jennie Wei, Chair of the Gallup Alcohol Task Force, raised concerns about local incidents of frostbite and other weather-related injuries, helping to focus community discussions on the urgent need for emergency shelter.
“Our task force was put together in 2015 to help tackle the challenges we were seeing around alcohol, morbidity, and mortality,” Dr. Wei explained in an interview. “It’s expanded to include over 20 organizations. We meet every two weeks to share updates, trends and resources.”
Cold-exposure emergency visits spike
Early in November, the task force saw a worrying uptick in cold-exposure emergency visits. “We were especially concerned because the crisis center had limited hours, and there was nowhere in Gallup for women, children, or families needing shelter,” Dr. Wei said.
Determined to fill the gap, Dr. Wei reached out to contacts in Albuquerque and the State Office of Housing. With support from officials like Gilbert Ramírez and Roslyn Gallegos and drawing on partnerships with local resources like Gallup Express and the Community Pantry the team was able to open the new shelter in record time.
The project received $218,700 from New Mexico’s Department of Workforce Solutions, an increase from the initially anticipated $175,000, facilitated by the Office of Housing through an intergovernmental agreement. “We’d never run a shelter before, so getting projections was a challenge, but we had strong support from state and local partners,” Martinez explained.
Shelters sees over 30 guests per night
The shelter is managed by Alexis Lucero and her team.
Since opening, the shelter has transformed from chaos on the first night, to a well-run operation regularly providing beds for over 30 guests, and as many as 49 on the coldest nights. Lucero shared that new rules and safety procedures have made the shelter especially welcoming for women and families.
“We started off with just two or three women, and last night, we had 11,” she said on Thursday, emphasizing the impact of their inclusive approach.
Hygiene and dignity are cornerstones. A “blanket library” lets guests trade dirty blankets for clean ones. Showers start at 4:30 a.m. with hygiene kits and warm socks offered.
“We want everyone to have a chance at some comfort and to feel looked after,” Lucero shared.
Meals are another cornerstone. The Community Pantry and local donations ensure that guests don’t go hungry. Breakfast includes waffles, sausage, bacon and oranges and dinner ranges from chicken patties to warm burritos and fresh fruit. Entertainment, from board games to dominoes, helps guests get comfortable and unwind.
Removing obstacles
What sets this shelter apart is its low barrier to entry: identification is not required, lowering obstacles for those most in need. Data and feedback collected by staff and the city underscore the shelter’s positive impact.
“A lot of misconception about the unhoused is their behavior, but honestly, as long as you treat them with the same respect you’d expect to get back, it usually works,” Lucero said.
Collaboration with Gallup Express began when a board member informed Tommy Mims, Director of Gallup Express, about the shelter’s growing need for transportation support.
“The city called us and asked if we’d be interested in helping them with transportation,” said Mims. “We run an extended route in the evenings, till 10 o’clock, that anybody can get on, not just those going to the shelter.”
Mims said feedback from passengers is overwhelmingly positive.
“Almost every time they get off the bus, they say, ‘Thank you for bringing us and getting us to the shelter,’” Mims shared. “They’re really appreciative that we’re doing this for them.”
Data collection
Initial data collected in December showed the shelter served 272 adult intakes and 279 intakes including children, with four families and five kids among the guests. “Most of our guests are Native American, between the ages of 25 and 45, and the majority have been homeless over a year,” Martinez said. “We’re learning a lot from this data, it’s helping us see if we’re reaching those most in need.”
The shelter is open to all, but its immediate mission focuses on women and families who have the fewest options for safe overnight refuge. Surveys and focus groups are ongoing, gathering feedback to inform shelter operations and future planning, while further analysis is underway to identify trends such as repeat visitors and the reasons some guests do not return.
Though the shelter is only slated to operate through Feb. 27, city leadership is considering extensions based on collected data and community need. Martinez emphasized the importance of ongoing outreach, “Accurate numbers on the unsheltered population are hard to come by. This effort will give us clearer insight and make our case for future funding much stronger.”
Donations welcomed
The shelter welcomes donations of bottled water, coffee (for mornings), and warm clothing items such as socks, beanies and jackets. These are among the items most in demand. The shelter also benefits from contributions to their food pantry; donations of nonperishable food are appreciated. Donations can be dropped off directly at the shelter after 6 p.m. and is recommended for easier coordination with staff. If that timing doesn’t work, donors can call the shelter’s number to arrange another time.
The Gallup Emergency Warming Shelter operates daily from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. until Feb. 27 at the Howard Johnson Ballroom, 2915 Historic Highway 66. The shelter is free and open to all individuals and families, offering support services and community resources. Transport to the shelter is available from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
For shelter information, call 505-236-1841; for transport or pickup, call 505-722-0777 or 916-204-0093.
This article was written by Independent staff writer Vida Volkert.
It was originally published Jan. 10, 2026.