Second-Year UNM Law School Students Help Create Statewide Affordable Housing Plan
September 28, 2026
This summer, two University of New Mexico School of Law students, Will Martin and Noah Passaris, worked as housing policy interns for Bernalillo County’s Community School Innovation and Strategic Partnerships Department.
Martin and Passaris are both second-year law students who discovered their interest in housing law in their Property Law class with Professor Serge Martinez, Associate Dean of Experiential Learning at the UNM School of Law.
Their work focused on the New Mexico Housing Plan, a statewide strategic effort led by Deanna Creighton, Deputy Director of Bernalillo County’s Community School Innovation and Strategic Partnerships Department. The plan seeks to develop research-backed, evidence-informed strategies to maintain and expand access to safe, stable, and affordable housing for all New Mexicans.
“What surprised me the most in this summer’s project was learning how deep the need for housing reform runs in New Mexico,” said Passaris. “We are decades behind other states in terms of policy infrastructure and coordinated response. Watching this gap close through conversations in real time made the stakes of this work feel very real, which is hard to get from a classroom alone.”
“For me, this experience taught me how fluid the law can be in the real world. In the classroom, the law can feel more fixed, but in real life it felt so different from just reading rules on a page,” said Martin. “Working with so many people and perspectives showed me that a lot of progress can be made through understanding and compromise, which I believe are important skills for lawyers.”
To help develop policy recommendations, Martin and Passaris first learned about the housing challenges facing New Mexicans in rural and urban communities across the state. They met with housing leaders, including representatives from the Governor’s Office of Housing, and traveled to communities throughout New Mexico to meet directly with local stakeholders. They also created and distributed surveys to communities they could not reach in person and reviewed comparative housing research.
After reviewing their data, Martin and Passaris identified trends among rural and urban communities and eight priority issues where state policy could have a significant impact. They then developed recommendations and drafted proposed policy language addressing those issues.
Throughout the process, they learned that state housing policies often focus primarily on the needs of metropolitan areas, reinforcing the importance of hearing directly from rural communities.
“Traveling to different counties made it clear that housing needs in New Mexico aren’t one-size-fits-all,” said Passaris. “What a rural county in the southeast needs looks different from Bernalillo County, and different still from Tribal or border communities.”
The plan is currently in the public feedback phase, with community stakeholders across the state providing input to help ensure that the plan reflects the needs of New Mexicans. A final version is expected in November for legislative review.
“We are excited to continue working on this project through the final version in November, and looking ahead, I would like to continue working on projects like this to help improve housing laws for New Mexicans,” Martin said.
To learn more about the students’ work and view the initial draft of the New Mexico Housing Plan, visit the plan’s website. Second-Year UNM Law School Students Help Create Statewide Affordable Housing Plan
This summer, two University of New Mexico School of Law students, Will Martin and Noah Passaris, worked as housing policy interns for Bernalillo County’s Community School Innovation and Strategic Partnerships Department.
Martin and Passaris are both second-year law students who discovered their interest in housing law in their Property Law class with Professor Serge Martinez, Associate Dean of Experiential Learning at the UNM School of Law.
Their work focused on the New Mexico Housing Plan, a statewide strategic effort led by Deanna Creighton, Deputy Director of Bernalillo County’s Community School Innovation and Strategic Partnerships Department. The plan seeks to develop research-backed, evidence-informed strategies to maintain and expand access to safe, stable, and affordable housing for all New Mexicans.
“What surprised me the most in this summer’s project was learning how deep the need for housing reform runs in New Mexico,” said Passaris. “We are decades behind other states in terms of policy infrastructure and coordinated response. Watching this gap close through conversations in real time made the stakes of this work feel very real, which is hard to get from a classroom …
