NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)— A big problem across the City of New Orleans is homelessness and while an encampment in the Tremé area is a lot cleaner Wednesday, the biggest issue still remains.
On Wednesday (March 29), city sanitation workers along with the New Orleans Homeless director and the Health Department, were under the Claiborne Corridor cleaning up homeless encampments.
“The city is investing significant resources today, as we do on a regular basis in cleaning up for the purposes of health and also for the purposes of sanitation,” said Eugene Green District D Councilman.
Many residents and business owners who see the encampment every day say the clean-up won’t solve the homelessness problem.
“No human being is supposed to live like this. There are rats running around, all kinds of stuff. There is human feces on the ground, they’re needles all over,” said Louis Charbonnet
Charbonnet Funeral Home.
One resident of the unhoused community says a fix to the problem, is affordable housing.
“I’ve had a housing voucher that’s been approved in the city since October actually I send my case worker 6 listings a week. I’ve done the legwork, I talk to the people. Nobody wants to take the voucher,” said Olive, an Unhoused resident.
Olive who is a service worker says the clean-up is appreciated but would rather have a more permanent solution.
“Not all of us that are out here choose to be out here, we’re not all addicted, we’re not all criminals. Some of us would just love to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, but as you can see mine are broken,” said Olive, an Unhoused resident.
Councilman Green says the issues and the needs of those who are unhoused, versus the community where people have invested, need to balance.
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