JEFFERSON PARISH, La. — Somewhere in Metairie, there’s a new family that calls the area home.
But it’s how the family got there that has Jefferson Parish leaders and homeless advocates asking questions.
“It sounds outrageous, but we really don’t have any detail,” said Martha Kegel, executive director of UNITY of Greater New Orleans, a homeless advocacy group.
A recent report in The New York Post says that city has begun to quote “secretly” export some of its homeless residents to everywhere from New Jersey to Hawaii -- and south Louisiana.
No one from the parish was available Tuesday for an interview, but President Mike Yenni was quoted in The Post’s article as saying “I’m not in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s shoes. I don’t sit behind his desk, and I never will, but it’s certainly interesting. You have shocked me down here in beautiful southeast Louisiana.”
The relocations are part of what the New York City Department of Homeless Services calls the ‘Special One-Time Assistance’ program. Families get a full year of rent and are moved to a new location.
So far, more than 5,000 families have been relocated as part of the program.
“Any American, including any New Yorker experiencing homelessness, has the right to seek housing where they can afford it and employment where they can find it,” New York City Department of Social Services spokesperson Isaac McGinn wrote in a statement. “Our city remains committed to using every tool at our disposal to help these families and individuals find stability in the ways that work for them, including through relocation and rehousing programs that date back decades.”
Kegel said that while the relocation sounds harsh, it could be a more nuanced situation. “It all depends on whether this particular family that was sent here is from here.”
She said that’s a key point. But there are also concerns since New York isn’t answering many questions about this.
“If they have no connection or a very limited connection here, then it is outrageous. Then it would be what homelessness experts have long called ‘Greyhound Therapy,’ which is the practice that some cities have of simply shipping out their own homeless people to other cities.”
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