NEW ORLEANS — A Orleans Civil District judge issued a temporary restraining order on Monday to stop all homeless sweeps in New Orleans.
The order is effective immediately.
According to Judge Ethel Simms Julien's order Louisiana State Police, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and the Lousiana Department of Transportation and Development shall:
- Refrain from destroying or disposing of the property of unhoused people without judicial process
- Not engage in any sweeps of unhoused people or their encampments without providing, at bare minimum, the notice set out in Code of the City of New Orleans
- Not seize the property of unhoused people without providing, at minimum, the post-sweep remedial procedures for notice, storage, documentation, and recovery of property set forth in the New Orleans municipal ordinance
Notices were distributed to unhoused people in and around the French Quarter this past week, telling them to leave within 24 hours or they “may be assisted in relocating to an encampment at another site.”
In a statement Friday, City Council member Lesli Harris said the notices are part of "Governor Landry's next round of homeless sweeps."
In late October, State Police and the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries relocated multiple encampments downtown.
Harris also said that during the first round of sweeps, “Case managers lost contact with over 63 unhoused residents, who were set to be housed within weeks.”
Many of those individuals were moved to a single encampment under US-90B near South Robertson Street.
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