NEW ORLEANS — A new plan to resolve the homeless crisis in New Orleans and the surrounding metro area aims to provide subsidized apartments and will block off existing homeless encampments in the city of New Orleans.
Since the start of the pandemic, homeless encampments have surged in public areas under the Pontchartrain Expressway, Claiborne Avenue, along areas around the exit ramps for the Crescent City Connection and Tchoupitoulas Street.
As our partners at The Times-Picayune report, now armed with additional funding from the federal government, New Orleans city officials have identified the first encampment to be blocked off and camp residents will be relocated to subsidized housing offered by local landlords participating in the city’s program.
The city will begin housing people this month with the goal of at least 100 people relocated by the end of the year.
Over 90% of the people identified by the city as homeless live in Orleans Parish. A small number of people are located in Jefferson Parish.
The city’s plan, which will be presented to the City Council this month, will provide a rent subsidy to help place them in participating apartments at market rate as Nola.com reports.
Some encampment residents will receive rent money for a full year while some could be subsidized longer.
People living without any income will have their full cost of housing covered while those who have some income will not pay more than one-third of that income on rent.
Once the people in the targeted encampment are housed the camp will be cleared out of debris, waste, tents, and tarps.
City workers will then block off the public areas used by the encampment and redevelop them into public green spaces.
The city’s new homeless strategy plan is largely made possible by the addition of a $15 million federal grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which will be used for rent and hotel payments, and an additional $14 million from health care providers including Ochsner Health, LCMC Health, the Tulane School of Medicine for mental health services.
City officials acknowledge the funding can’t fully solve the homeless crisis by providing long-term subsidized housing to everyone who needs it.
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