NEW ORLEANS — As New Orleans prepares to host the Super Bowl next month, Louisiana authorities cleared homeless encampments around the stadium on Wednesday and relocated many to a temporary warehouse facility that costs millions of dollars to operate.
Gov. Jeff Landry framed the sweep — which city officials say undermines their efforts to address homelessness — as part of a move to secure New Orleans, especially in the aftermath of the New Year’s Day attack that killed 14 people.
The tough-on-crime Republican governor has talked about plans to improve Louisiana’s most popular city ahead of the Super Bowl at the Superdome. That has included a new Louisiana State Police troop dedicated to New Orleans, removing homeless encampments elsewhere in the city, and ensuring highways, sidewalks and transportation lines are clean and safe.
“It is in the best interest of every citizen’s safety and security to give the unhoused humane and safe shelter as we begin to welcome the world to the City of New Orleans for both Super Bowl LIX and Mardi Gras,” Landry said in a Monday statement.
Last week, the state’s Supreme Court overturned a restraining order that had barred the state police from clearing homeless encampments in New Orleans. Days after the ruling, “relocation notices” from the state appeared at one of the city’s largest homeless encampments beneath an underpass near the Superdome. The notice warned that “everyone must comply” and “failure to do so may result in enforcement actions or legal proceedings.”
On Wednesday morning state police converged on the encampment and told people to pack their possessions into boxes and that there were buses to take them to a “transitional center” miles away at a fenced-in warehouse owned by the Port of New Orleans.
People at the encampment were told that they did not have to go to the transitional center, but they were not allowed to remain in the area and were under threat of arrest, Mike Steele, a spokesperson for the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, told The Associated Press.
Among those at the encampment was Ray Cooper, who scoured for his social security card amid scattered clothes, bicycles and tents. Cooper, 35, has lived mostly on the streets for the past few years and declined the state’s offer to bring him to the transitional center.
“That just turned me off — we’re going to a warehouse? I’m not a UPS package or anything like that, I’m a human,” said Cooper.
The temporary center has the capacity to house 200 people. As of Wednesday evening, 131 people were staying there, said Bart Farmer, the president of Workforce Group, a company that specializes in post-disaster assistance and is operating the site.
The center includes three meals a day, bedding, showers, toilets, refrigeration for medication and veterinary care for their pets, according to the relocation notice. The site is estimated to cost the state $16.2 million to operate over a 90-day period, according to a proposal crafted by the Workforce Group and obtained by the AP.
Critics argue the relocations to the center are a band-aid solution. In a letter sent to the governor from 12 community organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, the groups expressed “serious reservations about the effectiveness, cost-efficiency and long-term impact of this approach.”
“Evidence-based best practices for ending homelessness are centered on permanent housing with supportive services,” said Martha Kegel, who leads UNITY, an agency which partners with the city on efforts to house and support its homeless population.
Part of Landry’s homeless strategy, announced on Monday, states that housing and services will be prioritized for “citizens that have jobs” and that people “who have means will be given bus or train tickets out of state.” While details surrounding the plan are still unclear, Steele said that relocations out of state would be voluntary.
Landry’s approach clashes with the City of New Orleans’ plans to close these same encampments by first providing long-term housing to people living in them. The city said it has requested $6 million from the state to assist in these efforts and that state-led sweeps cause “delays” in providing housing and services to the approximately 1,500 homeless people in the city.
Candice Allison, 63, who said she had been homeless since Hurricane Ida destroyed her trailer in 2021, sorted through a mass of clothes and other items she hoped to salvage on Wednesday, fearing authorities would return to confiscate her possessions.
“I’ve been doing this all night, I haven’t ate, I haven’t slept, I’m exhausted,” Allison said.
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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on X: @jack_brook96