ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – This week, the Albuquerque City Council approved more than $4 million to renovate the Westside Emergency Housing Center. 

More than 20 volunteers built 60 bed frames Wednesday morning at the shelter, and these new beds have some special features.

“So the bed frames, mattresses and pillows are bed bug resistant. There’s not little hidey holes or zipper casements where the bedbugs can go under and hide,” said Maria Wolfe, a City of Albuquerque homeless innovations officer.

Back in 2022, KOB 4 ran a story after multiple guests and workers at the shelter claimed there was a bed bug infestation.

“I have seen them crawling on the sheets. I keep my area clean, so I am able to identify them better,”  said MJ in 2022. 

Since then, the shelter has been fumigated, and they now have sanitizers that look like washing machines. These machines will soon be in all the dorm rooms.

“They would walk in and right here will be a table, and it’ll have one of the bedbugs, boxes, heat boxes. They’ll be able to put all of their belongings into it, turn it on with a timer, heat their stuff,” Wolfe said.

We’ve learned the renovations are not just about keeping bed bugs out.

“We have new lighting. We have new paint, bathroom fixtures and flooring,” Wolfe said. 

They are also trying to make this former jailhouse feel more like a home.

“This area next to the door monitor and check-in space will have a quilt hanging down here, and a television and the seating area with furniture donated from Presbyterian Hospital. And so there’ll be a little gathering space,” Wolfe said. 

“We’re just very, very appreciative that you can see kind of the culmination of county resources, our city council administration and prioritizing this to get to a space where, you know, within the short time that I’ve sat in as director that our team has come together to actually do this,” said Gilbert Ramirez, director of the Health, Housing and Homelessness Department. 

There is still a lot of work ahead of them and in total, there are 12 dorm rooms. City officials say they want them all renovated by winter.