With public health issues rising as the days go by for those living under the Canal Street overpass at Claiborne Avenue, officials began a push to clean up the area Wednesday.

WWL-TV

The Claiborne Avenue underpass was washed up and discarded materials were taken away.

“The homeless are at greater risk for all kinds of communicable diseases — HIV-Aids, hepatitis, tuberculosis,” UNITY homeless advocate Mike Miller said. “We've had outreach workers who have tested positive for tuberculosis.”

With that in mind, a small army of workers spent the morning cleaning up and washing down the homeless encampment some call Tent City. They carted away unoccupied tents, soiled mattresses and general garbage.

The homeless moved their belongings to the sidewalk while sanitation workers and volunteers cleared the debris and pressure washed the cement.

In all, workers removed about four truck loads of debris, including 40 tents and 20 mattresses.

“We got great cooperation from the residents here,” Miller said. “They are real enthusiastic about getting some of the smell out of here, getting a lot of the garbage cleaned up.”

There are still about 50 people living under the bridge, down from nearly 150 earlier this year.

The homeless said all the activity caught some of them by surprise.

“I was really scared, really intimidated,” Patrick Pugh said. ‘I didn't know if the police were going to get involved in it. I have been arrested so many times.”

Officials from UNITY for the Homeless said cleaning up the encampment is far from a solution to the problem. But, they said, what it does do is give them a little more time to find permanent, sustainable housing for people now living out here on the streets.

Right now money for 3,000 supportive housing vouchers for the local homeless is tied up in a stalled spending bill in Congress.

“It's Gulf Coast recovery money,” Miller said. “It's money to help out the hospitals, help out the criminal justice system, help out with the mental health situation here in New Orleans. There's also $70 million, which is an extremely small amount, tied into alleviating homelessness in New Orleans and in Louisiana.” 

Pugh said he is looking forward to the day when he will have a roof over his head instead of the interstate.

“They know I hurt,” Pugh said. “They know I pain under here. What UNITY is doing, they're doing the right thing for us. They're giving us a chance. That's all we need is a chance.”