Who are they?

Who are these homeless people sitting out on City Hall's front yard? Are they a bunch of wino's with nothing better to do? Are they all crazy people, left with nowhere to go after Charity Hospital's unfortunate demise? Or are they just crack addicts waiting to pounce on Tulane medical students for spare change so they can blow it on another trip?

The answer to all of these questions is ... yes, and no. And here is how I know.... I talked to them.

Several medical students and I have watched this settlement grow from a few homeless guys in a park to a whole community, which now goes by the name of "Tent City." We grew curious as to what this whole phenomena was about, so we went out last Thursday, and asked some residents of T-City why they are there. The answers we got were actually quite different from what we were expecting.

Contrary to what we believed, homelessness is not a state that you expect to stay in forever. According to two previously homeless men, who now are spokes peopele from Ozanam Inn (a local homeless shelter), multiple adverse events happen to an individual so fast, and so proximal in time, that the individual cannot recover fast enough and loses everything. These events can be divorce, natural disaster, losing a job, making a bad investment, psychological disorders, addiction, losing family members, etc... When someone doesn't have the resources to recover from these events, they end up homeless.

Many of the residents of Tent City were struggling before Hurricane Katrina, and then the storm served as a coup de grace, and finished the job. Some tried staying in the city, and were eventually escorted out by federal troops, while others made it out to nearby states (some made it as far as New York). At some point, New Orleans Mayor, Ray Nagin, sent out a message to the nation for the residents of New Orleans to come back and help rebuild. So, they did... and they were in for a bad surprise.

Scores of New Orleanians (as well as individuals from outside of the state) came to the city looking for work... and there is no shortage of work. There is actually a shortage of workers, despite the influx of people returning to the city. The problem is that there is no affordable housing. Ever since the hurricane hit, two years ago, rent and housing prices have sky-rocketed in the city.

Most of the homeless in New Orleans actually do work. They find jobs operating forklifts at the shipping ports, washing dishes at posh restaurants in the French Quarter, working at hotels, gutting and rebuilding houses, etc. Despite the pay, they still cannot afford housing, and are forced to sleep on the streets. You can see them sleeping outside Jackson Square in the French Quarter, at the French Market, under Interstate-10 on Canal, at Tent City, and many more locations. There are an estimated 12,000 homeless in New Orleans, and some are even claiming that this is an under-estimate.

Now, you are thinking... "sure, they are homeless, and it sucks, but they're not innocent little angels, either." That is true. Homelessness goes hand-in-hand with illegal behavior. Living on the streets is rough. Many of these individuals have drug and alcohol addictions, have stolen before, and commit violent acts. This does not warrant that we should ignore them, but should make us want to help them even more. The longer they are marginalized by society, the harder it will be to bring them back into society as productive, happy citizens. They want this chance... so, to use the words of a former homeless man, Sessie Pullins, let's "give them a hand-up, as opposed to a hand-out."