About Us

About Our Casa

Casa Milagro is a safe, trusting, and nurturing community for adults recovering from homelessness and debilitating mental illness. Each of our twelve residents has a private room in a large home with ample common spaces: living room, dining room, art room, “quiet” room, porches, and yards. The house is designed to balance privacy and community, giving and receiving companionship and support.

Our staff coordinates and supports residents in accessing medical and therapeutic support in the wider community. We simultaneously cultivate a therapeutic environment in-house to support recovery at home. We listen and trust individuals in what they want and need to thrive, encouraging our residents as they establish, and meet, their own goals. Most importantly, we walk with them as they reach for those goals.

We are a 501c3, guided by HUD guidelines for Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH). Residents can stay as long as they need, as long as they respect the program’s guidelines. We are proud that our housing is affordable and accessible to low income people. Casa Milagro is a member of the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness (NMCEH) and shares in that coalition’s mission to end homelessness in New Mexico, by supporting our neighbors in need.

History

Our History

With equal parts compassion, vision, and gritty determination, Meryl Lieberman and Carol Luna Anderson founded Casa Milagro in 1995. Their goal: to provide a safe, supportive, reliable home to people experiencing a spectrum of serious mental illnesses.

Meryl says, “Casa Milagro was founded on an assumption that belonging and being a part of the bigger whole is the real healing force...We were very intentional in that regard.” Furthermore, Meryl adds that the presence of animal companions has been important since the beginning. People are invited to bring animals into their home, which generates joy and healing.

Extending beyond the home into the neighborhood, in the early days, Casa Milagro hosted a barbeque to increase positive visibility and to build relationships with neighbors. Their support sometimes manifested in offering small jobs to residents--helping with horses or babysitting, for example.

Then tragedy came. Casa Milagro hadn’t been up and running long when a fire ravaged the home, rendering it unlivable. Following the fire, Carol Luna Anderson urged HUD to help bring Casa Milagro back to life. Through HUD’s assistance, the “House of Miracles” came into being. Through the vicissitudes of life, people have come and gone, offering and receiving their own gifts. As they’ve continued on their paths, Casa Milagro has maintained a commitment to healing through the discovery of greater belonging.

Our Board

Adam Leonard

Board President

Marcos Zubia

Board Member

Anna Brunson

Board Secretary

Board Bios

Adam Leonard

Board President

Adam Leonard joined the Casa Milagro Board in 2021. Previously he was a member of the Vermont State Rehabilitation Council for five years, two of which he served as council Chair. He also served as Chair of the Working Bridges Advisory Council, an employer collaborative supported by the United Way of Chittenden County, that developed initiatives to provide low to moderate wage earners the access to resources and support to assist them in being successful at work and secure in their economic stability. Adam is passionate in his belief that a community is stronger when all individuals within it are supported and included, and that supported and included individuals can build a stronger community. He sees Casa Milagro as a vital component of this equation, offering that support and inclusion to those in our community who most need it. Adam has been working in the field of Human Resources for the past 18 years and currently serves as the Human Resources Director for the North Central RegionalTransit District. He moved to New Mexico with his family in 2018 from Vermont.

Leadership

Our Leadership

Anji Estrellas

Executive Director

Anji Estrellas, MA
Executive Director

Anji is originally from Roswell and loves to visit her tias in the same house she was brought home to from the hospital. Her pronouns are she/her/ella and she has bicultural roots from a Mexican American mother and an Anglo midwestern father. She moved to Santa Fe in 1994 after graduating from ASU with a Bachelor of Social Work and while working on her Master of Counseling Psychology with an emphasis on wilderness/experiential therapy. Her behavioral health career spans three and a half decades. Anji has worked from student intern to an Executive Director and many roles in between. In her career she has focused on work with trauma survivors and understands the intersection between mental health, addiction and the right to safe housing. She is thrilled to have been invited to serve the residents living in this community and join the outstanding team at Casa Milagro. When not at work, she goes on adventures with the love and light of her life—her daughter—and their large loud affectionate German Shepherd.