NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)— Homeowners in the Treme neighborhood are fed up with a camp for the homeless beneath the Claiborne overpass. And, it’s a problem that’s been getting worse over the past two years.
“We’re around here trying to upgrade our houses, the taxes are steadily going up and these people are out here on the fat of the land. and they’re messing up the neighborhood,” resident Safiyyullah Yusuf. “They’re shooting dope, they’re selling drugs, they’re butt-naked out there, they’re throwing stuff on the ground and make it look like a third world country”
Yusuf and his neighbors say they want the city to improve their neighborhood by forcing the city to make this homeless encampment move.
Ernest Wright works for this insurance company on Claiborne Ave and he says the encampment has even had an effect on their customers, “It was difficult for the people to park and come in here, so they complained and we just have to live with it seems like it.”
We spoke with the city and a spokesperson told us, that the city can’t force the people living under the bridge to move. And since the pandemic began, the city has provided port-a-potties and hand cleaning stations for sanitary purposes. The residents say this is counterproductive.
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According to Yusuf, “That’s aiding and abetting if you’re gonna put a toilet out there.”
Martha Kagel is the executive director of Unity of Greater New Orleans provides housing for people without homes and she says the Treme neighborhood is dealing with has spread across the city.
“It’s in every neighborhood. It may be concentrated in some neighborhoods more than others but it’s a problem across the whole city. And the solution to is affordable housing and we have an acute shortage of it,” said Kagel.