NEW ORLEANS — The City of New Orleans started to clean up the encampment site near the Pontchartrain Expwy and Tchoupitoulas Street on Friday. The site will be permanently shut down. Director of Homeless Services Nathaniel Fields says 50 people from the site have a home thanks to the partnership with UNITY New Orleans.
"I took some folks yesterday to a location and they were just happy to lay their head in the pillow and take a shower," Fields said.
There were several signs posted around the camp saying the city would start clearing them out at 7:00 a.m. Anyone left behind could have trespassing fines, it's something Fields said they are trying to refrain from doing.
"What we're really doing is making sure that individuals don't return to the area," he said. "We won't want to use the enforcement piece. We'll be doing outreach and case management and trying to stay away from that but by law, we have to make sure that people understand the severity that it is."
Fields said outreach is key when it comes to keeping people from returning. With four other large encampments identified around the city, Fields said they expect to learn better ways to approach this clean-up process in the future.
Felids said, "I'm hoping that with this one being the first of many that will get better in practice and also bringing our friends who are advocating for the lives of these individuals at a table as well. Making sure that they have voice and opinion and how the process goes."
Once cleared, the area was cleaned and fenced off.
A massive web of community partners is working together to secure subsidized housing for former encampment members. UNITY is at the center of this subsidized housing plan.
Executive Director Martha Kegel said, "That's really our piece is that we're focused on housing people and housing as many people as possible. It might surprise people to realize this, but the vast majority of unhoused people desperately want a house. And so if you are able to do that they are just thrilled."
Housing is their main priority, but Kegel said they connect people in need to a variety of resources like mental health and substance abuse counseling. As UNITY waits for a $15 million grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development expected to be released in January, the state has given UNITY $1.1 million in grant funding to start their efforts.
"It has been a really gratifying process to be in to be able to help more people because of this grant. We finally have some resources to be able to help more people and actually, you know, close down this camp, which has been the site of a lot of suffering and certainly a problem in the city," Kegel said.
Some encampment residents will receive rent money for an entire year, while some could be subsidized longer. People living without any income will have their total cost of housing covered while those who have some income will not pay more than one-third of that income on rent.
There is an additional $14 million funded by health care providers which includes Ochsner Health, LCMC Health, and the Tulane School of Medicine for mental health services.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.