ALBUQUERQUE — The week before the upcoming legislative session, a coalition of New Mexico advocacy organizations launched a new billboard campaign today across Albuquerque highlighting how community stability is fundamental to public safety.
The billboards, featuring the message, "Safety starts with STABILITY," can be found at major highways including westbound I-40 near Twelfth Street, eastbound I-40 near Carlisle, southbound I-25 near Candelaria, and southbound I-25 near Jefferson.
"We all want to live in safe communities," said Daniel Williams, policy advocate at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico. "This campaign highlights how stability – through housing, healthcare, and support services – creates lasting safety for all New Mexicans. Research shows that when people have stable housing, access to healthcare, and support services, communities thrive and public safety improves. Harsh, failed policies that put more people in prisons ignore these proven solutions and fail to make our communities safer."
The 2025 New Mexico Landscape poll shows that 79% of New Mexicans support taking preventative measures to increase public safety through investments in education, healthcare and housing. The coalition also points to research showing that stable housing, accessible mental health care, and addiction treatment programs are more effective at preventing crime than harsher penalties and long sentences.
"We all want to live in a place where we can be healthy and safe, where everyone can afford rent, where no child is forced to study while living out of a car, and where everyone can afford the support services they need to be healthy and stable,” said Rachel Biggs, chief strategy officer with Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless. “Our communities thrive when everyone is housed."
“We stand with a majority of New Mexicans who want to increase public safety by making more investments into education, housing, and healthcare. This is a commonsense approach proven to be more effective at preventing crime than typical approaches of increasing penalties and sentences. New Mexico families deserve a research-backed and thoughtful approach to improving safety in our communities, and that starts with creating more stability,” said Oriana Sandoval, executive director at the Center for Civic Policy.
"New Mexicans understand that real public safety comes from addressing root causes, not quick fixes," said Williams. "While our communities want immediate solutions, we need reforms that actually work – not policies that threaten the rights and dignity of New Mexicans while doing nothing to make us safer. That’s why our coalition will be supporting legislation aimed at improving access to behavioral health, getting and keeping New Mexicans housed, and addressing substance use in our communities."
The coalition includes ACLU of New Mexico, Equality New Mexico (EQNM), Bold Futures NM, New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness, OLÉ, Enlace Comunitario, Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless, NM Eviction Prevention & Diversion, Center for Civic Policy, Naeva (Native American Voters Alliance), and Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico (TGRC NM).
The billboards will be on display until January 19.
