NEW ORLEANS — Before finding shelter at Covenant House several years ago, Gioia Barconey spent three nights sleeping in her car, without a place to call home.
“It was gut wrenching,” Barconey said. “It made me feel like I was failing at everything.”
Now an entrepreneur, Gioia says she knows how hard it is to start from scratch.
“Just getting a home was one thing, but to be able to understand how to maintain a home, financial stability, saving, even being able to get a job plays into the mental aspect of it,” Barconey said.
Now, 50 individuals who were sleeping in tents under the Pontchartain Expressway, will have a safe place to lay their heads.
Covenant House Executive Director Rhenisha Robinson says the city needs a long-term plan to eliminate what causes people to end up on the streets in the first place.
"It's a good step,” Robertson said. “But I think there definitely needs to have a clear path to a sustainable solution. That only comes when, you know, the community gets together to talk about, you know, what the real issues are, and develops a strategic plan to address the real root issues.”
The city is already clearing encampments but the road to solving homelessness all together in New Orleans, could be a long one.
City Counselman Eugene Green is working on a plan to provide homeless individuals in his district with resources and a roof over their heads.
“The city's goal long term is going to be to have enhanced the quality of life for those who are in these encampments, for those who are unhoused,” Green said. “Provide them with stability so that they can be comfortable and that they can be productive members of our society.”
The New Orleans office of Homeless Services plans to help unhoused people in four other encampments in the future.