Surge in homeless hits New Orleans
The city has double the homeless it had before hurricane Katrina – but far fewer emergency shelters.
from the March 28, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
More than 12,000 on the street each night
On any given night, more than 12,000 homeless men, women, and children need shelter in New Orleans, Kegel estimates. Before Katrina it was 6,000 a night; just a year ago it was 2,000. Her estimate does not include people living in federally provided trailers or multiple families occupying a single house.
The growing homeless population also faces a dearth of social services and a nearly complete lack of mental health care, along with rising crimes rates and the myriad other dangers that come with living on the streets.
According to homeless advocates, the city has no effectively functioning social-services agency offering case management to the homeless.
City officials say addressing the city's shortage of affordable housing hinges on state and federal funds, both of which have been slow in materializing. "Mayor [Ray] Nagin realizes that homelessness is a growing problem in New Orleans," says Pat Robinson, deputy chief for planning for the Mayor's Office of Planning and Development. "To address this, we're utilizing state and federal allocations and working with agencies such as UNITY, which are working as an extension of city government."
What little aid many of the homeless receive is being offered by grassroots volunteers who often have no experience. Brandon Darby, interim director of Katrina relief group Common Ground, says the nonprofit has taken numerous calls from the public advocacy office asking for help to find housing for homeless residents.
During one recent week, a volunteer acting as a caseworker assisted a middle-aged diabetic who was facing discharge from a local hospital with nowhere to live, a senior citizen addicted to gambling who had been living in Harrah's casino before she was turned out, and a mother who had spent weeks living in a car with her teenage son. The mother had recently moved back into her flood-damaged house in the city's hard-hit Ninth Ward when a tornado knocked it off its foundation in mid-February.
"By law the federal government was supposed to give people made homeless by Katrina 18 months of assistance, but in many, many cases that never happened," says Mr. Darby, who has set up a toll-free number so Common Ground can take calls directly from the homeless and accept donations for their support. "Many landlords will not work with people who have FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] vouchers, because they're afraid FEMA will not pay. There are almost no services in this city for people with severe disabilities. Rates of mental illness have gone through the roof, but there are no psychiatric beds available.... Everyone has their own problems to deal with, and it's hard to find someone to help them."
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