NM governor fires housing policy adviser

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office confirmed on Thursday that Daniel Werwath, her housing policy adviser, left his job last week.

In an interview on Thursday afternoon, Werwath said the governor’s office told him they’re “going in a different direction on housing” and terminated his employment. The governor’s employees work at will, meaning they can be fired for any legal reason.

Werwath’s last day on the job was on April 3, Communications Director Michael Coleman told Source NM in an email on Thursday.

“Gov. Lujan Grisham appreciates Daniel’s contributions in developing housing policy for New Mexico, including crafting financing proposals and working with the legislature,” Coleman said in a statement. “The governor thanks Daniel for his service and wishes him well in his future endeavors.”

During the most recent legislative session and the previous one, Werwath helped spearhead a failed proposal that would have created a new Office of Housing, Planning and Production in the executive branch. He said on Thursday it was the ultimate reason he joined the governor’s office in the first place.

He said he was surprised the proposal didn’t get passed, and that it “basically got killed” this time around because Senate Finance Committee Chair Sen. George Muñoz would not schedule it for a hearing.

“The system we have in New Mexico is, a single person can kill something if they’re a committee chair, and that’s wild, after four committee hearings with bipartisan votes,” Werwath said. “It’s pretty wild that that’s the way we do things.”

Werwath took on his role at the governor’s office in January 2024, following several decades of work in affordable housing, including as executive director of New Mexico Inter-Faith Housing and acting executive director of The Housing Trust and Tierra Contenta Corporation.

He said he is proud of what the Office of Housing in the governor’s office has been able to accomplish since, including record state funding for housing two years in a row, and some unprecedented legislative proposals like land use reform, for example.

He said he has tried to achieve “some systemic change around housing, which apparently there’s less appetite for than I had hoped.”

“That’s my main disappointment from the legislative session — and also sometimes the governor’s perspective on this stuff — it’s like everyone thinks in terms of projects, everyone wants to throw money at problems, but there isn’t as much appetite to try and fix these bigger structural issues that are making our dollars not go as far,” he said.

Considering all of the different changes needed, it will take a decade to reverse New Mexico’s affordable housing situation, Werwath said.

“I shot my shot at trying to get the state to embrace a systems-level approach to housing,” he said. “I felt like we had a lot of really good bipartisan support. I’m disappointed. I don’t think the state is as serious about solving housing as it says it is.”

There are still three people at the governor’s office still working on housing, Werwath said.

He said he will probably return to work as a housing planning consultant, but for now he needs a break to prepare for his child to be born next month.

“I’ve been definitely not giving enough time to my family over the last 14 months, so that’s my top priority right now,” he said.