Currently the budget for emergency shelter support statewide is $1M, which funds only 18 emergency shelters. This increase of funding will triple the capacity for NM to open emergency shelters. The pandemic has increased the need for emergency shelter as New Mexico grapples with increasing rates of people experiencing homelessness for the first time. There are new shelters in Espanola and Gallup, for example, that need to be funded through sustainable recurring state funding, with many other communities also in need of increased shelter capacity.