Residents near Zuni Road First Nations Clinic report rising safety concerns

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Residents living near the First Nations Community Clinic on Zuni Road say ongoing problems in their neighborhood have made them fear for their safety.

“Can’t even go for a walk. Can’t even let my daughter play outside in the back of the house because you never know who’s going to come up,” said Anthnoy Garcia, who lives nearby.

Nicole Carnegie said residents regularly deal with the smell of methamphetamine, people screaming and fighting, and discarded needles and trash.

“There’s constantly a smell of like smoking meth all the time. There’s always somebody high on drugs and screaming and yelling, or somebody beating their girlfriend,” Carnegie said.

She also said residents have had knives pulled on them while walking through the neighborhood.

Carnegie said the problems have escalated to the point that her father’s van caught fire last week after people she described as regulars in the area allegedly tried to steal it.

Anthony Garcia, who also lives on Madeira Avenue off Zuni Road, said the neighborhood has become increasingly unsafe.

“It’s changed from being a semi-safe neighborhood to being a completely unsafe neighborhood,” Garcia said.

Garcia said police frequently respond to calls on their street. He and Carnegie believe many of the problems are connected to the First Nations Community Clinic.

“We have problems with this clinic all the time,” Carnegie said.

Carnegie also criticized the clinic’s leadership, saying residents have struggled to get their concerns addressed.

“It seems like the CEO of the clinic because she gets to leave and go home. So she doesn’t seem to care that because it’s a low-income neighborhood that she just doesn’t care about anybody here and their safety,” Carnegie said.

First Nations is an award-winning federally qualified health center that provides medical services to Indigenous and underserved populations.

But neighbors said they are frustrated with activity outside the facility, particularly people staying in its parking lots.

“For some reason they allow the homeless to be in these parking lots and yeah they’re out here almost every night,” Garcia said.

Carnegie, Garcia and their neighbors say they have reached out to the clinic in hopes of finding solutions to their safety concerns, but they have not seen changes.

“When we approach the CEO of like the clinic over here, she blocks our phone numbers. She refuses to see us,” Carnegie said.

Officials with First Nations Community Clinic declined to comment for this story.

City officials said they are coordinating with the clinic but declined to provide additional details when asked about the concerns raised by residents.

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