ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — More affordable housing is coming to Albuquerque. City councilors gave the green light Monday night to two new apartment complexes on Central.

“Somos” and “Sixty-Six” will replace vacant lots along Central, bringing 166 new apartments to the area.

Sixty-Six will be a three-story multi-family building with 96 units. It will be at Central and Adams.

Somos will be slightly smaller, with 70 affordable housing units on Central and Alcazar.

“The Housing Forward program requires hundreds of new units of housing,” Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said. “So this is a way to put about 150 on the market in the short term. It’s the kind of redevelopment we like along our sort of core along Route 66. So this is a very good thing for housing in our city.”

Last year, Keller introduced the Housing Forward Initiative. His administration wants to add 5,000 new housing units to the city.

“This helps us move towards that goal of 5,000 units – we’re hoping a lot of those come from casitas,” Keller said. “But we also know the city said that we would step up to try and redevelop some properties along Central and so I think, in aggregate, we’re probably around 500 units now that we’ve created and so we’re on our way – but it’s gonna take a few more years.”

Keller said these buildings will be available in the short term, which can be anywhere between one year and three years. In terms of next steps, the building will be bid on and then will begin construction.