By Rory Carroll
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Louisiana is providing shelter and services to around 170 homeless people from New Orleans’ highest density areas as the city prepares to host Sunday’s Super Bowl and conclude Mardi Gras next month.
At the direction of Governor Jeff Landry, police in January cleared out homeless encampments in the tourist-heavy French Quarter and near the Superdome, where the Super Bowl will be held, and gave the people the option of going to a “transitional center.”
Located in a non-descript industrial building in the city’s Pontchartrain Park neighborhood, the center provides temporary housing, food, laundry, medical, mental health and addiction services, haircuts and more, according to state officials.
It is closed to the public and press and Reuters’ attempt to view the facility and interview people staying there was unsuccessful.
The site is expected to remain open for two months at a cost of between $16 and $18 million, according to Michael Steele, the communications director with the governor’s office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
“The governor said that if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right,” Steele said.
“So there’s an entire social worker network of assistance that’s available as well as a lot of wraparound services.”
Steele conceded that the center got off to a rocky start due to heating and plumbing issues in its early days but said those issues have since been resolved.
The center opened just days before an unprecedented winter storm that dropped eight inches of snow in the city and Steele said he believed the shelter saved lives.
He pushed back on the idea that the center was an attempt to hide the city’s homeless population amid an influx of tourists and said the staff there believe it will have a positive legacy that could serve as a model for other cities.
“Our staff sees this as one of the brighter issues when it comes to all of the Super Bowl prep work because we were able to take this group out of harm’s way and meet their immediate needs, like with the winter weather conditions,” he said.
“We’re also looking for longer-term solutions that may provide them with a more stable housing option going forward.”
Jack Waguespack, the executive director and co-founder of Below Sea Level Aid, a local harm reduction organization, said people were moved out of the encampments under the threat of arrest and that some of their belongings were lost in the shuffle.
“It’s never a good situation when force is used,” Waguespack said.
“It absolutely could have been a good thing if it was done correctly.”
Reviews of the center varied, Waguespack said.
“I’ve been getting mixed stories as to the status over there,” they said.
“It sounds like they are offering all of the services they said they would like case management, showers, meals. I just don’t think it’s up to par with what many of us want to see. It feels very makeshift and very rushed.
“As if they were fixing this ‘problem’ before they had an actual solution.”
Steele said that while the expectation is for the center to run until about mid-March, that timeline could shorten if the people there are able to move into more secure housing before then.
“Our staff and the vendors are doing everything they can to find best solutions for the crowd they are dealing with,” he said.
(Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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